Manticore Asylum
by autumnskye1004
Summary: This story takes place after Freak Nation. Just as everyone is settling in news comes in that someone is holding transgenics in a psychiatric hospital, what happens when one of TC's own gets caught? Read to find out... Rating is T for now...I made some slight changes to chapter 11. It's a little more well rounded. Chapter 12 coming soon.
1. (insert witty chapter name here)

**Disclaimer:** Unfortunately I do not own these characters. (Insert frowny face here) They are the property of James Cameron and crew. (Insert witty/sarcastic comment here) I am simply just borrowing them for this fan fiction…

 **Pairing:** Touches of Max and Logan (the end of a relationship) and Max and Alec, eventually. I will try not to bash Logan. At least not too much…

 **Summary:** This story takes place after Freak Nation. Just as everyone is settling in news comes in that someone is holding transgenics in a psychiatric hospital, what happens when one of TC's own gets caught? Read to find out. This is an edited version…I kind of hated the original first chapter so I changed it up a bit.

 **A/N:** This is my first Fan fiction ever...I need constructive criticism...please? and reviews in general would be nice :) I'll try to update as often as I can... reviews may persuade me to update faster...just sayin...:)

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Max sat in her office in TC head in her hands.

It had been a month since they took a stand, a month since the military surrounded TC each side waiting for the other to make their move. Finally the tunnels in and out of TC were functioning and ready for supply runs and emergency exits if need be. They were able to turn an old apartment complex and a couple old hotels into livable space for all of them, but as more arrivals came in everyday they had to start doubling up in apartments. Lucky for them, most of the transgenics didn't mind grouping together.

There was still so much to do. There was still the matter of the ruins on her body that needed translating, more had popped up since the siege began and it looked as though part of the message was missing. On top of that, if they were going to make it out of this thing alive they needed to get a plan together for the inevitable moment when the troops or the Familiars stormed the gates. She wasn't naive enough to believe they would all make it out unscathed, she knew there would be casualties, but if the plan was good enough maybe they could minimize the actual number. However, Max was starting to wonder if she had gotten in over her head…if it hadn't been for Alec… she isn't sure how she'd get through all this.

The charismatic X5 had become her SIC and if she cared to admit, _which she wouldn't_ , her best friend in all this mess. Of course they still argued. She was still more of a bitch to him then she had to be. He still made it his mission in life to annoy her. However, a lot of the venom that used to accompany their words were gone. She had come to count on his input. Specifically, since the night she told him about Ben.

An immense problem since the siege started was some of the transgenics and trans-humans didn't trust Max still, at least not a hundred percent. She of course was a 09er and a "traitor"...god she was so tired of hearing that. It really wasn't their fault. She knew it was because it had been drilled in their heads since her unit bailed. She also understood that brainwashing like that doesn't just go away over night, but it still sucked. Fortunately, with Alec backing her up, it seemed to be less and less of a problem. Alec obviously, had held a lot of respect within the ranks and for that and his support she was grateful. _But she'd be damned if she would ever tell him that_. She silently wondered to herself what Alec's role had been in Manticore. She realized she never asked him much about his past, maybe because she thought he wouldn't tell her. Maybe because the one time she had asked he had shot her down, throwing the escape in her face. But their friendship had grown since then. Of course he had never asked about her past either. _She didn't want to think too much on why she seemed to care_ … Although, she was particularly grateful for that, as there were things she hadn't told anyone. Not even OC so how would she be able to explain her past to him?

She had just gotten off a video call with Logan…they were again fighting over their relationship, or lack thereof. The virus was still firmly in place, and they were drifting apart. Max just didn't have time, and honestly didn't want to be bothered. She wasn't even sure how she felt anymore, and that scared her more than anything. She once thought she loved this man. They had danced around each other for almost 2 years now. She realized that she had put Logan so far up on a pedestal he could do no wrong, but she was starting to understand that he did not understand….at all.

 _ *******FLASHBACK********_

 _Logan looked at Max and their intertwined hands and for the first time since the "almost cure" he felt hope. Hope for himself and Max, hope for the transgenic cause, and hope for the downtrodden, broken world they lived in. Sure the siege wasn't ideal, but Max was taking a stand and he couldn't be more proud that he was here to witness this amazing moment with her._

 _Max was in a euphoric high. She was surrounded by friends, by family, and for the first time in a long time she felt comfortable in her own skin. For the first time ever, she accepted who she was and she was damn proud. However, she knew this moment wouldn't last. There was so much to get done. So much to figure out. She looked down at her hand in Logan's not quite remembering when he grabbed it and a feeling of dread hit her. She knew then what had to be done. She knew now where she belonged…_

 _The flag was up and the crowd was thinning out, Max looked to Alec,_

 _"Tell everyone I want a meeting in command, I'll be down in a minute."_

 _"You got it Max" Alec said following the crowd off the roof._

 _Max turned to Logan._

 _"Thank you, for your help today"_

 _"Anytime, so what happens next?"_

 _"Well, for one we have to figure out how to get you, Original Cindy and Sketchy out of here. You can't keep breathing the air in TC"_

 _"Okay? But I sort of meant with us Max…"_

 _"Us? Logan right now I can't think about us. I have an army of people downstairs, waiting for me to tell them what the next plan is, and how we are going to survive this siege."_

 _"But Max, I know the whole thing with you and Alec was a lie. I know you aren't together. At some point we are going to have to figure this out."_

 _"Logan I…you're right the thing with Alec was to push you away, and he went with it only because I asked him to. But it doesn't change anything with us. Now is not the right time for us to be together. Especially now. With the siege, and the virus. End of discussion. I'll see you downstairs." Max was staring to walk towards the door and Logan called out to her._

 _"Max wait! Is it ever going to be the right time for us?"_

 _Not turning around out of fear of losing her nerve to end things with him. Looking at the door in front of her she said_

 _"No, Logan I really don't think it will be. I just need you to understand…please. You will always have a place in my heart, but things are too different now. I'm different now."_

He tried, she knew he did, but in the end it didn't change the fact that they all went through the hell that was Manticore, and he didn't. For the first time since the escape she was around people like her and it felt like home. She was proud to be herself. No more hiding. No more running. There were still things she didn't want him to know, because she knew if she told him things would change even more. Maybe it wouldn't be intentional…but she knew he couldn't handle the truth of what she had done. And the things he said about Alec…Max didn't understand why he couldn't see that Alec had come a long way from the guy he was when Manticore met its fate. Logan had been trying to get back together ever since the flag raising, trying to convince her nothing had changed, and she just couldn't do that. EVERYTHING had changed, he just didn't want to see it.

Alec stood at the door, she hadn't looked up so he wasn't sure if she heard him approach until he realized how lost in thought she was. _I wonder what's going on in that head of hers._ He watched her for a moment, watching closely as the emotions played over her usually unreadable face. Max didn't let people in, but then again none of them really did. Emotions and how to deal with them were as foreign to transgenics as feline grace was to the ordinaries. Their Manticore masks always firmly in place. The façade of his "always alright" mantra, and her bitch defense mechanisms. Maybe it was part of the wiring in their brains that made them that way, maybe it was part of their fucked up child hood…or their training, whatever the reason he understood the need to let the mask fall for a moment if for no other reason than to be able to breathe a little easier. He knew he shouldn't be watching, but he just couldn't look away. After a couple more minutes he decided to knock.

Manticore mask firmly back in place, Max looked up at Alec as he leaned against her door-frame. "What's up Alec?"

"Wanted to see if you were ready to go over the supply run plans, Luke and Dix pulled some blue prints for us on this warehouse in sector 3. There's apparently enough food to last us a good couple months." Alec walked in further to sit on the tattered old couch he had acquired for Max's office.

"Okay, just give me a few minutes…" Max rubbed her temples. Logan had given her a headache…again _. Right now I have to just focus on the task at hand. That is feeding the residents of TC._

Alec got up and walked over, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder "You okay Maxie?"

She quirked her eyebrow _Am I really that transparent?_ "Don't call me that!" She said only half meaning it. She had to pull herself together. Manticore mask back on her face. She shrugged off his hand, got up and moved towards the door.

Hiding the hurt in his eyes with his own mask, Alec put his trademark smirk in place "you didn't answer my question…Maxie" following suit.

 _Smart aleck...well two can play that game…_ "I'm always alright!" she flashed him a half smile and walked into the dimly lit hallway.

"Uh huh….yeah except that's my line…" Alec whispered frowning, he followed her down the hall. He remembered her asking him once, so he figured _what the hell, why not…._ "Look Max if you ever need to talk…."

Cutting him off, she told him "Alec, really I'm fine…" with no conviction in her voice whatsoever…but there was a task at hand that needed to be dealt with.

Alec let it drop for the moment but he would be asking again later. _He really didn't want to think on why he cared so much…_


	2. Everything's changing

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything.

A/N: For all intents and purposes. Any of Max's siblings who didn't die on the show are alive and well. I'd like to see her reunion with more than just the ones mentioned in the show. However, Ben and Tinga are still dead… as much as I would like to bring them back…I feel like their deaths have shaped Max into who she is and her relationships with people. Especially with Alec. With Brin….well you'll just have to wait and see.

Zane and Krit sat in an old motel room right outside Seattle, waiting for Syl and the others to return with some food. They had been traveling for weeks now. Trying to get the whole family together…or what's left of it to get to Terminal City where they heard their baby sister was in charge. Zane had believed she'd been killed when he met up with Syl and Krit, but when he saw the news cast about the transgenics in Terminal City and they replayed the footage from the Jam Pony incident he knew without a doubt that his baby sister was alive. They heard from other transgenics headed that way that one of the 09ers were in command there.

He always knew his baby sister would be CO if they had stayed back at Manticore. It seemed like she had excelled in everything. If it hadn't been for her seizures….

 *****Flashback*****

 _Zane had been sleeping when he heard something crash. His 12 year old self jumped up, eyes searching in the dark for the source of the crash. His eyes focused on Maxie's cot. She wasn't in it. Which wasn't unusual but when he looked at Ben's cot she wasn't there either. But Ben had heard the noise too and their eyes locked. They knew it was Max in that moment. A whimper came from the opposite side of her cot. Both X5's jumped out of bed and were at her side in a second. Zane pulled her into his lap and absorbed her shaking body trying to minimize the sound. Holding her to him with all his strength. Hoping the guards hadn't heard the crash so far no one else was awake, so maybe luck was on their side._

 _"Shhhh Maxie Its gonna be okay." Ben was saying rubbing her head._

 _"B…B…..Ben, Z…Z…Zane," she stammered as another seizure took hold. She tried to curl her body further into Zane's._

 _"Baby sis we're right here. Ben and I are right here and we aren't going anywhere." Zane kissed her head and continued to murmur reassurances._

 _They stayed with her the rest of the night. Ben telling his stories and Zane holding her until she had control of her body again. By the time the guards entered Max's seizures had long been over. That morning before drill Zane had told Zack about how bad her seizures had become last night. It was only a few days ago Jack had been taken and they didn't want the same fate for their baby sister. Zack may have taken credit for the idea to run, and that was okay Zane understood he was CO…it had to come from him, but Zane knew it was his and so did Ben. Neither one of them wanted to see their baby sister get taken away. They did what they had to do._

Zane shook himself from the memory. For as long as he could remember he'd always protected Max, maybe it was because she was the youngest. Maybe because she was his favorite. Maybe it was because he felt the sibling bond. No matter what the reason… Max just had this way about her. They both had the same defiant attitude towards Zack and of course Manticore. They both loved to push their own limits as well as everyone else. And no matter what, family always came first for them, damn the consequences. Yeah, he was proud of what his baby sister had become.

Syl burst through the door. Jondy right on her heels. "Zane, they got Vada!"

"They? They who?" He jumped up and Kayla barked. "Shhh down girl." He said to his dog.

"I don't know…we were ambushed. Ash and Seth got separated from us. They are on their way back here. Kavi is following them. He never let Vada out of his sight."

"Okay listen, we are going to wait for Kavi to check in. When he does we will go do some recon and make a plan from there." Zane sat back on the bed. He hated waiting…

 _(Back at Terminal City)…._

Alec practically bounced through the doors of command looking for Max. They had hit the jackpot in the warehouse and he couldn't wait to tell Max. Everything had went according to plan and not only was there enough food for a couple months, but also some basic medical supplies to go with it. It seemed as if their luck may be turning around. After Manticore, the transgenic lynching's, the siege and all the bad guys in their lives, it seemed only fair that for once something had to go right… _Right?_

Mole was sitting with Dix looking over some new arrivals for security detail when he saw Alec come in and head towards Max's office. "She's not in there, she went up to the roof about 20 minutes ago …but, I wouldn't go up there if I were you princess."

"…She was talking to him again wasn't she?"

"Just got off the call. Damn ordinary can't take a hint to leave her alone. After you left he must have called 20 times at least. Finally she answered after she heard you say you were on your way back here. I've never actually seen her so agitated…almost makes me feel bad… _Almost"_ Mole smirked with his ever present cigar in his mouth.

"I'm gonna take my chances…if I'm not back in an hour send a search and rescue party."

"It's your funeral kid" Mole said shaking his head turning back to talk to Dix.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah… what else is new?" rolling his eyes he headed for the stairwell to the roof.

Max heard Alec's approach and felt his presence as he opened the door. She had seen him run towards command when he got back. She managed to wipe the last remaining tears away just as he opened the door. She turned her head towards him.

"Hey Ma…." Going for nonchalance but the words died on the end of his tongue when he smelled the tears in the air and looked her over. She'd definitely been crying and it was written all over her face. _He really hated when she cried_...Anger he could take. But crying meant sad…and that was one emotion he still didn't feel comfortable dealing with. _Where's OC when you need her?_ Closing the door behind him, he walked over and took a seat next to her on the edge of the roof.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"UGH! Alec…I'm not in the mood for your antics right now…"

"No antics Maxie…just me… seriously what's going on? Tell your old buddy Alec"

"Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that?" she raised her eyebrow at him, but he just raised one back. "It's just…Why won't he just listen when I say we have to be over? Why's he giving me such a hard time?"

"Short answer Max? The man loves you in his own way…."

"What's that supposed to mean? 'In his own way'?" Max questioned mockingly.

Alec rolled his eyes but clarified just the same. "Just what I said. In his own way…In a way you're just like his exotic art collections something rare, beautiful and priceless."

"Alec! You're making it sound like I'm an object! I'm not his personal property!" Max interjected.

"I know that! But you asked so just listen for a second…" When Max reluctantly nodded in response he continued. "Do I doubt Logan loves you? No, on the contrary I'm sure he does. But he's a bored rich guy playing hero and you're his own personal super power. Think about it Maxie if he truly cared like he says he does, would he really put you in danger on a regular basis doing eyes only crap, and then argue with you when you want to take someone to watch your back?"

"No, you're right." _But he only argues because you're the backup I want with me._

 _"_ Wait…what? Did I just hear you say I'm right? I should go get Mole I need a witness because nobody's going to believe this." Alec smirked pretending to get up.

"ALEC!" she warned punching his arm lightly. "I just wish he'd understand where I'm coming from ya know?" Alec nodded. He could relate to that. "How do I get him to understand?"

"Now, do you want me to be honest here or is this a trick question because I really…I'm just too tired to be a punching bag tonight…" he smirked.

Max punched him in the shoulder again. _Oh how she missed OC right about now…_

Laughing lightly he said "Okay, alright…honestly?" she nodded as he sighed running his fingers through his hair almost nervously, "Max, there are just some things ordinaries will never understand…cyber "genius" or not he is still an ordinary. Sure he can research and hack until he's blue in the face about our training and our abilities and hell even some of the things we've done, but he still wouldn't get it. He'll never fully understand even the simplest things about you." _Not like I do…_ Alec looked into her eyes…he had an overwhelming need to kiss her then…but he suppressed the urge, he settled for putting his arm around her and slightly nuzzling her hair feeling her need for comfort as she leaned into his one armed embrace.

"I just…I wish I knew how to get him to let go. He's so overwhelming and exhausting. He just doesn't stop until I answer. I can't do it anymore...I don't want to do it anymore…"She confessed breathing a sigh. _When did talking to Alec get so easy?_ She pondered that though for a moment.

"Then don't Max. It's as simple as that."

Max cocked her eyebrow again. "Really as simple as that, huh?"

"Yep." Alec kicked his feet a little.

Max thought about it, maybe it was that easy. She'd just stop, cut all ties. She already explained to him how she felt. She didn't need to explain herself any further. He would just have to let go in his own time. Suddenly feeling her mood lighten she looked towards Alec.

"I could really use Crash right about now…"

Alec laughed "Yeah, I swear there's a pitcher of beer calling our names…"

"So I heard over the com that the supply run went well"

"Yeah! We got some medical supplies as well as the food that was there. In and out no big deal. "

"That's great! Did you get the medical supplies to Lily and Doc?"

"Tyler and Talon were handling it. I'm sure they got them by now. And Josh came by with Gem to take the food over to the mess hall. " Max nodded.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while just looking over the city. Sure it wasn't perfect by any means. But it was becoming a home. Their home. Some of the younger X's were goofing around. Some X's and transhumans were sparring trying to keep their strength and abilities up. ' _Next building we have to clean is something large enough to be a gym…'_ Max thought. There were mated couples holding hands and walking to their destinations. Max and Alec both secretly wondering if they'd ever find that. Someone they were willing to give their whole selves to, not just the parts they let everyone see.

"Hey Max, it's getting late, I'm gonna get home, I need a shower and not to mention I'm pretty sure it's been almost an hour and I told Mole if I wasn't back to send up a search and rescue party" he joked.

Max hit his shoulder "Alec!"

"What?! He said you were agitated…usually that means I'm in for an ass kicking even if I didn't do anything…it was self-preservation"

"Whatever. I'll head down too. I have work I need to finish anyway…"

"All work and no play makes for a cranky Maxie…you should get some rest too." Standing up he held out his hand to her as she took it as he looked her over a little further, he realized how exhausted she actually looked, she had also lost a little weight if that was even possible. "Max when was the last time you ate or slept?"

"I don't know like 3 maybe 4 days ago for sleep…I'm pretty sure I ate breakfast…yesterday…"

It was Alec's turn to raise an eyebrow "Max, I know you have shark DNA but you're pushing it…and you need to eat. Come on lets head down to mess and get some dinner. I could use a little food myself before I bunk down for the night."

Max was going to argue and tell him to mind his own business but for once she thought better of it and went with him. As they headed down the stairs of command a disheveled Dalton was coming up.

"Hey guys I think you need to come see this…"

 **TBC**

 **Please Read and Review any and all reviews are welcome :) Will update soon!**


	3. Saying goodbye sucks

**Disclaimer: Still own nothing...but I wish...oh do I wish...**

 **A/N: Sorry for the late update... and sorry the chapters a little shorter than i intended...I was going to post it yesterday but the original end I had for this chapter...sucked...still not 100% sure about this one...but hey if it sucks or if you like it tell me what you think. Read and Review please :)**

Alec and Max followed a blurring Dalton to the middle of command. Everyone was watching the news. What was left of Jam Pony was up in smoke. The reporter was saying something about a homemade bomb. But all Alec and Max could focus on was the body bags behind the reporter.

The reporters voice was saying, "….3 dead and 6 others injured in what looks to be a vigilante attack against a transgenic friendly establishment. Mr. Regan Ronald, whom is among the deceased, helped deliver a baby transgenic into the world a little over a month ago. He has since received violence and death threats, things seem to have taken a turn for the worst here tonight. Police have urged media outlets to advise citizens to not take these matters into their own hands, please let the professionals handle this. These transgenics are a danger…." Mole turned off the TV. No one needed to hear anymore.

She couldn't believe it. She went to speak but nothing would come out. Alec put a reassuring hand on the small of her back and she let out the breath she was holding. Her mask in place for the moment…

"Luke, Dix I need whatever footage you can get, satellite, hover drone, security…all of it. We need to know if this was really vigilantes or something else altogether." Max turned to Alec who was on his phone. Max could hear the ringing and the voicemail pick up.

"Sketch isn't answering…Neither is OC" Alec and Max shared a worried glance.

Before she could say anything Dix interrupted "I got something guys" The two X5s were at his side in an instant. "This is half an hour before the attack…" on the left side of the screen was a black sedan, government issued.

"White…" Max and Alec said in unison. Dread filled the room. This was no vigilante attack. It was what they feared, an attack from White. He was using the ordinaries fear of them to get to her. She just hoped Cindy and Sketchy weren't among the deceased. Alec's phone started ringing. Alec took one look and answered.

"Logan…buddy…." Max begged him with her eyes to make an excuse for her…she couldn't talk to him right now. Alec nodded in understanding.

 _"Did you see the news?"_

"Yeah we saw it. We're working on figuring out what really happened. Looks like White was there from the hover drone footage…"

 _"Oh, yeah I saw that…It's why I was calling. Is Max with you? Can I talk to her?"_

"No, I'm not with Max…" Alec ran his hand through his hair.

" _Please tell her to call me…and if you guys need anything let me know…"_

"Sure, yeah buddy I'll tell her." Max rolled her eyes as Alec hung up the line.

"I need to find OC…Mole you're in charge, Dix page me if you find anything." The transhumans nodded as Max grabbed her leather jacket off the back of a chair.

Alec grabbed her arm to stop her. "Max I'm not sure that's such a good idea. You saw it. Whites back out there."

Pushing his arm away she shot him a death glare. "Alec this isn't up for debate! I'm going!"

"Then I'm going with you." Alec pulled on his own jacket and Max put out her hand to stop him.

"No, there's no reason to risk both of us." She stated adamantly walking out the door of command.

"You're not going out there alone. Period. The buddy system was YOUR idea. No one goes out there without back up, remember? Seattle is hostile territory now."

She stopped at the foot of the stairs… _damn it he was right, but she really didn't want him to see anymore weakness from her tonight she'd shown him enough…_ she started walking again, "I'll take someone else…I'm sure Talon would…"

Alec cut her off and fell into step with her. He was getting angry now, _why is she fighting me on this?_ "NO! Max I'm going or no one does. DAMN IT! They're my friends too!" the last part came out as almost a whisper.

"THEY WERE MINE FIRST!" She knew she was being childish, but in that moment she was terrified, so of course she resorted to what she'd been doing since Alec entered her life. She took it out on him. "DAMN IT ALEC! You came WALTZING into my life and…" She finally turned to look and her words died in her throat. For the first time since seeing the news she actually looked at him, his 'Always alright' face was gone. And the emotions swirling in his hazel orbs were breath taking to say the least. She watched as an emotion she couldn't quite place, hurt, fear, worry and then finally pure anger went through his eyes seconds before his Manticore mask slammed down on her. "Alec I…"

"No Max I want to hear this!" he said eerily calm, when she didn't continue he did. "Go ahead what are you throwing in my face this time?! That I'm a screw up? Letting you ALMOST kill Logan? ALMOST killing you and Josh? How about losing your ONE chance at the cure? ACCIDENTLY getting your cure papers painted over? Am I getting close yet Max?"

"Alec come on, stop…I didn't mean…" She started but he cut her off.

"Or is it that I have Bens face? Not getting to Biggs on time? Cece being the one who died and not me?! COME ON MAX WHAT IS IT?" Alec screamed at her. Alec took a breath and ran his hand through his hair. Looking at Max he could see the tears in her eyes again, but he was hurt too and even if she didn't want to see it he cared about Cindy and Sketchy (hell even Normal) just as much as she did, and he wasn't letting this one go yet. "Damn it Max! Whenever I let myself think hey maybe we are becoming friends, you flip this switch and it's almost like any of the good things we've been through didn't exist! It's insane and I can't keep doing this. I'm going to help find them and that's it, not for you but for them and for me because they are my friends, even if you can't see that. " he didn't let her say a word before he continued towards the garage where they kept their bikes.

Max knew she had to let him cool off before she even attempted to apologize. They continued in silence. Max was deep in thought. _Apologizing to Alec that was a new concept …I know he didn't deserve most of the shit I've given him… Alec's come such a long way and all I ever do is tear him back down…no wonder that's what he thinks goes through my head. He'll never know how much alike I actually think we are…I was just like him once…we are going to have to talk when all this is over…UGH why do I always do this…._ Max was so busy thinking that she didn't see the curb. She tripped and even though Alec was angry he was right there to catch her. Max looked up at him.

"Thanks…"

"Anytime Maxie…" Alec smirked…but this time it didn't meet his eyes. He was guarding himself from her and she knew it. Just then Alec's phone rang. They both jumped and Alec checking the ID let out a sigh of relief as Sketchy's number blinked on his phone. He showed it to Max before answering.

"Sketch, buddy you don't know how good it is to hear your voice. Max and I were just on our way to search for you guys"

"Man, everything is FUBAR down here, I'm at Harbor Lights Hospital. I can't find OC. Normal, Sky and little Suki are dead man….it all happened so quick...One second everything is fine and the next BAM…Normal got it the worst he was holding the package with the bomb. He went to hand it to Sky…and...Little Suki just happened to be walking in the front door when it happened…wrong place wrong time. This is all nuts man. Who would do this? Man I…"Sketchy was rambling, Alec shook his head and balled his fist and Max was already getting on her bike. As Alec lifted his leg over the bike ready to go.

"Alright buddy listen, Max and I are coming down there so hang tight. Do you know if OC was taking to the hospital at least?"

"Last I knew. But I haven't seen her and none of these people will tell me anything."

Alec disconnected the call and revved his engine. They made it to the hospital in less than 10 minutes. Max called Dr. Shankar giving her the information she needed to find OC and Sketchy and to meet them in the garage as she couldn't take the risk of someone recognizing her by going through the front door. Dr. Shankar escorted them in to a back room where Sketchy was waiting.

"Sketchy…" Max cried hugging her friend being careful to avoid the burns on his body. Letting go as Alec went to shake his hand. She turned to the doctor "Where's OC?"

"She's on her way down. She, like Calvin here, was Lucky."

"Luck had nothing to do with it boo." Cindy's voice filled the room and you could hear a pin drop. Max swung around to hug her best friend. "Damn girl, Original Cindy is good…but I need to breath." Max loosened her grip as Alec came over to hug Cindy. "Ain't nobody takin me out that easy." She said hugging Alec back.

"Cin, we're so glad you're okay….you too Sketch" Max said looking around the room. Dr. Shankar left them and Max looked to Alec.

"Ames White did this…He wanted to get to us…and he knew getting to our friends was the best way to do that." Alec caught Max's eye and knew what had to be said. "You guys can't go home. Your best bet is to leave Seattle tonight, at least for now…When it's safe we'll bring you back. But I know I speak for Max as well when I say, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything happened to you guys because of us. We can get Logan to get the paperwork and…"

"OC ain't leaving my girl."

"We don't have a choice OC. I don't want you to be another victim of my life." Max looked at her best friend pleadingly.

"Sketch tell 'em we ain't goin'"

"I think maybe their right OC…I..uh ain't ready to die."

"Fine…Boo where we goin?" Cindy said placing her hands on her hips.

"Logan's family has a cabin in Canada…for right now I'm thinking that's the best option. At least we'll know where you are, and I'm sure when things calm down we can at least come visit…" Max suggested

"You're lucky I've always wanted to see Canada…Cuz OC wasn't going to go quietly if you were stickin me in no mans land"

That night Logan was able to have the paperwork ready for them. Alec and Max said their goodbyes to their friends and headed back to TC, the situation may suck but at least they knew their friends were safe.

 **A/N: Hope you enjoyed please read and review :) Also next chapter will really start to get into the plot and back to Zane and the situation Max's siblings are in. I'm just really trying to build Max and Alec's relationship before all the major things occur.**

 **Jenna: Thanks for your review! Glad you liked it!**


	4. The Asylum

**Disclaimer: Still don't own anything...anybody got a shooting star handy? I'll wish for it...**

 **A/N This chapter was super easy to write...so its up a day early...Like it? Love it? Hate it? Read and Review.**

Two weeks later and Alec still wasn't talking to Max. Anytime she walked into the room he'd suddenly have somewhere he had to be. If they had to be in the room together, the tension could be cut with a knife. This was getting ridiculous. They were adults and he was acting as childish as she had. She never thought about the effect her words had on him. He always seemed to let them bounce off him, but no one was indestructible…not even Alec as much as he pretended to be. All she wanted was a chance to apologize.

Alec knew he was being cold, but he was done. He was done being her punching bag, physically and verbally. He was done being treated like a friend when it was convenient for her, and a screw up otherwise. All he wanted was some respect. He deserved that much right? Would she ever see him as something other than the screw up? _What was she like when she first got out?_ He wondered this…Was she like him once? He had asked Cindy before all she would say was she shouldn't be telling him but before Logan Max was different…to say the least. She had spoken of a carefree Max who lived life in the moment…a happy Max. _Yeah right…sexually frustrated, always angry, always feeling guilty over matters she can't control Max….Happy? I doubt it…but damn I'd like to see that…_ He had to admit to himself that he did miss her…but it didn't change the hurt he felt.

Max had decided enough was enough. She was going to confront him. He was rooming with Joshua. So she begged Josh to let her know when he was home. It was around midnight when Josh had called her. Josh had agreed to make himself scarce. When Max got there Alec was still in the shower, she of course let herself in and locked the door behind her. Making herself comfortable on the couch while she waited.

Alec knew she was there even before he turned off the water. He could always tell when she was around. He knew this moment was coming…but did it have to be tonight? He was exhausted, they just got back from a medical supply run, that hadn't exactly gone as planned they had run into some familiars and barely managed to get away with no casualties. Talon was beat up pretty bad, and Alec was sure he had at least one cracked rib…yeah….no tonight was not a good night for this confrontation with Max. He debated on just staying in the shower until she decided to leave. But he was already starting to become a prune…. _Better just get this over with…_

Waking out of the bathroom, with just his blue towel, he mocked surprise. "Oh Hey Max…didn't expect to see you here…to what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?"

"Alec this is getting ridiculous, you're avoiding me."

Holding his hand over his heart he stared at her convincingly dumfounded, "Max you wound me…I would never…"

"Cut the crap Alec! I came here to apologize."

"Why? You've never apologized to me before why start now?"

"That's the point. I owe you, at the very least, an apology for the way I…"

"Oh come off it Max…you honestly expect me to believe you've seen the error of your ways? You forget I know you hate me. And to top it off you never admit when you're wrong…especially to me." Alec turned away from her and went into the bedroom to get dressed.

Max stood outside his bedroom door. "Alec, I know I've been a bitch to you"

"Understatement of the century Max" Alec called out.

"Seriously, listen to me. I'm sorry. I don't hate you Alec. I never really did…." She looked down at her feet.

Alec coming out of his room in black sweats and a black tee shirt stared at her disbelievingly. "Coulda had me fooled there Maxie."

Looking up, she could see the Manticore mask she'd seen so much of lately…this wasn't going to be easy. "Please, Alec…really I am sorry. I know you've come a long way from being the 'Screw up' I claimed that you were"

"Gee thanks…great apology Max…you gonna leave now? Cuz I'm pretty beat." He walked past her to sit on his couch putting his feet on a milk crate turned coffee table.

"NO IM NOT DONE! I need you to forgive me…I hate this…"

"If I say I forgive you will I have your absence?"

"No…because I know it would be a lie. I just want you to hear me out. I don't expect you to forgive me tonight…"

"Whatever Max. I guess I don't have a choice here…so go ahead"

"I am honestly sorry for the way I've treated you because you never once deserved it, not really. Well, I guess I should address the things you said the other day. Like I said earlier, I don't think you're a screw up at least not anymore." Alec huffed… "Come on…just let me say what I need to say and then you can go to bed or whatever and I'll leave you alone" Alec rolled his eyes but nodded. "Thanks….so anyway…Maybe you never were a screw up…I just saw what I wanted to see. I wanted a reason to hate you…a reason not to trust you… I take things out on you because you reminded me so much of myself a couple years ago. I don't blame you for 'letting me almost kill Logan.' You stopped it from happening and you were following orders, I can't hold that against you even if I wanted too. Almost killing me and Josh…well…you didn't kill us, and that's what matters. As for losing the cure and painting on my cure papers…yeah they were both technically your fault, but I'm the one who made the choice to save you…and I'd make that choice again because even if you are a pain in my ass, your life will always be more important than the cure," Alec quirked an eyebrow then wanting to disbelieve her but her emotions were written all over her face…and her eyes. "And the other was a total accident. As for Biggs and Cece…Alec do you really think that I could hold you responsible for either one of those? Come on…we tried to get to Biggs…I'm just as guilty there. I wish things had turned out different but I'd never hold it against you. If anything it's on me I know this city better than anyone of us….and I just couldn't….we didn't get there in time. I couldn't even imagine if it had been you instead of Cece…so you have no argument there. As for you having Bens face…yeah, some days it's hard…because you're here and he isn't…but I don't see Ben when I look at you, I could never make that mistake again. He was broken, cold, lost and confused. You could never be that…."

The sincerity in her eyes and the emotions going through them not only made him believe her, but for some damn reason made him lean over and kiss her. _She is going to kill me for this…is she really kissing me back? …_ Was his last thought before the door burst open. Max and Alec jumped apart.

The scene wasn't lost on Joshua who smiled excitedly "Max and Alec gettin busy? That's the plan?"

Max choked. And Alec stared flabbergasted. "Josh buddy…I uh….what's up?"

"Max, Alec needed in command, new arrival says knows Max…"

"Knows me?" Max was confused…about so much more than just this conversation…her mind wouldn't stop, and her heart was beating out of her chest. _I kissed Alec…Alec kissed me….What the hell is….._

"Yeah…says name is Zane?"

This pulled her out of her thoughts. "As in brother Zane? Fellow escapee?" Alec asked. But Max was already out the door. Him and Joshua following quickly behind.

Max got to command in record time and blurred up the stairs. As she ran through the door she ran straight into a Zane shaped wall. He looked down at her and she couldn't believe it was him, she hadn't seen Zane in going on 13 years, and although he was older, and his light brown hair was almost jet black now… he still had his piercing blue/grey eyes. There was no mistaking him, she'd know those eyes anywhere. She did the one thing she had been waiting so long to do and hugged her big brother. She was in tears…one of her brothers was here she had waited so long for this moment.

"Zane…is it really you?" she mumbled into his chest.

"Yeah, Maxie it's me. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere." He kissed the top of her head.

She pulled back and took a good look at him, it was then that she noticed his wince. At her arms around him and the black eye and busted lip he was sporting. "Oh my god…Zane what happened?"

"That's kind of what I need to talk to you about. I wasn't alone on my trip here." Just then he looked past her at the two men standing behind her. "Ben?" His eyes catching Alec's.

"No, Zane….his name's Alec…he was Ben's twin"

"Was? Wait Bens…"

"Not right now…that's a conversation for another day…please.." Zane nodded and looked back up to Alec.

"Sorry man I…"

"No sweat…don't worry about it" Alec smirked.

"Okay so what is it you need to talk to me about…what happened?"

"Well it's like this…we were all…well almost all…on our way here… "

"Wait…the others…they're with you?! Where are they?!"

"Yeah…I did it Maxie. Kavi, Vada, Jondy, Krit, Syl, Ash, Seth…I couldn't find Zack, Brin, or Ben" Max winced and it didn't go unnoticed by her brother but he let it drop for the moment "Anyway, we were on our way here to see you and things just went from bad to worse after a supply run turned transgenic-knapping…."Max's face got grim as he continued to recall what happened.

 ****** FLASHBACK******

 _Seth and Ash showed up shortly after Jondy and Syl looking like they had been to Hell and back._

 _"What happened to you guys back there?" Syl asked_

 _"We ran into what we thought were transgenics and tried to ask for help, but they attacked us. They definitely weren't transgenics. Their fighting was way different, but they weren't ordinary either. They were strong... almost too strong. That's what took us so long getting back and losing them was a bitch…" Seth answered grabbing a cold soda from the fridge and placing it against his cheek bone. "So what's the plan Zae…we need to get our sister back."_

 _"You're right. Sitting here is doing nothing and I'm goin' stir crazy here. Alright Seth, you, me and Krit are headed back to the last place you saw Vada and Kavi. Maybe we can pick up a trail or something. Kavi knows what he's doing he may have left us something only we'd be able to follow. The rest of you stay here, incase Kavi comes back here. If we are not back, or have not checked in by 2200 assume we've been compromised and head to ground."_

 _"No! I am not agreeing to that!" Jondy spat._

 _"This ain't Manticore Dee, I don't have time to argue with you on a better plan." Zane rolled his eyes. And Syl grabbed Jondy's hand._

 _"We'll wait here…but if you don't check in we are headed to TC for help." Syl locked eyes with Zane and he knew that her mind was made up._

 _"Fine."_

 _Zane, Krit and Seth headed for the outskirts of the farmers market where their siblings were last seen. She who happened to have a little more wolf than cat in his cocktail sniffed the air. He caught a faint scent._

 _"This way guys, it's gotta be them. Zae, Kavi is the only guy I know who still manages to get his hands on Eternity cologne. "_

 _"Well it's the only lead we got lets go."_

 _They took off at a run, not quite a blur, following the sent with Seth in the lead. It had been 5 1/2 hours of running through streets and woods until they finally came to a huge brick building surrounded by a humungous forest at all sides and an electric fence about 12ft high._

 _"Alright this is what we're gonna do. Krit call base let them know where we are. Tell them to stay there until next check in at 0600 tomorrow morning if we miss it, they are to follow the plan already in place. I want you in the trees, get as high as you can see how much of the facility you can see, call me if you get eyes on Kavi or Vada. Seth you're gonna take the south side and head east around the building. See what you can find out. I'll take the north side and head west around the building we meet back here in an hour."_

 _The guys headed to their positions but all Zane could think about was how much like Manticore this place seemed. As he got closer to the south side he could smell Kavi's cologne._

 _"Kavi, man where are you…." He whispered into the air._

 _Behind a tree further down the path a dark figure stepped out. "Zane, bro am I glad to see you...they… they got Vada… I couldn't lose her dude I just couldn't…"_

 _"I know, I get it…if it was anyone of you I would have done the same thing. Fuck the consequences. What do we know at this point?"_

 _"Well since I've been here. At least 6 military vans carrying prisoners all transgenic, all drugged some in significantly worse condition than others, it seemed have entered the premises, none have come out. It seems like they are on a 4 hour guard rotation at this point. There is a 5 minute window between guard changes where we might be able to get in and get a better look around. I did a perimeter check…dude there are no weak spots…they know what we can all do. The sign at the gate reads 'Western State Asylum' and to top it off the scientist that cut Jack open is here. He seems to be in charge he's given orders to the guards a few times since I've been here. Man this is fucked."_

 _"Damn it…I'll bet money, that on paper this place is the actual mental hospital listed at the front gate…only the patients aren't human their…us."_

 _All of a sudden an alarm sounded and both transgenics took off running towards where Zane had left Krit. As they got closer they could see Krit fighting with someone. Zane and Kavi took off in a blur to join the fight, but as they got there, guards surrounded them. They were outnumbered 8 to 1. Krit was down and Kavi and Zane put their backs together determined to get out of this. Zane attacked first with a kick to the chest of one of the guards. At the moment Zane's foot connected with the guard, Kavi managed to simultaneously grab at two guards and knock their heads together, temporarily incapacitating them. A third came at Kavi with a Taser. Kavi managed to grab his shoulders and flip out before it made contact. Zane took a punch to the jaw, and managed to land an uppercut to another. For every one guard they took out another one showed up. It didn't look good. The guards had the upper hand. Kavi didn't see the needle till it was too late and he managed to mutter a "run" to Zane before he hit the ground._

 _Zane did the only thing he could. He blurred the hell out of there losing the guards through the trees. It went against every bone in his body, this was his family. Never leave a man behind kept running through his head. He still didn't know if Seth managed to get away but he couldn't help them unless he got help. If Seth got away he knew to check in. He couldn't help but wonder how many of them were in there. Was Ben? Or Brin? Or Zack…is this what had happened to his CO? He made his way back to the hotel by 0600. As he walked through the door Jondy through herself into his arms._

 _"Zane...we were so worried….wait…" She pulled away realizing no one else was with him. "What happened?!"_

 _"We got ambushed, Krit, Kavi…both went down, last thing Kavi did was tell me to run…so I did. As far as I know they are just knocked out. There was a needle the guard used on Kavi…and Seth…I…no idea. Has he checked in here yet?"_

 _"No, oh my god…"_

 _Grabbing her face he made Jondy look him in the eyes. "Don't do that Dee, their fine. We know where they are…and possibly a whole lot more…according to Kavi looks like one of the scientists is trying to restart Manticore…or at the very least is rounding us up to be his own personal experiments….Look best thing we can do is get to TC and let them in on what's going on maybe with a full team and a real plan we can get everyone out." He let her go and hugged Syl. "We'll get them back…"_

 _"Yo, look they won't expect us to come back so soon. And someone needs to hang back and make sure they don't try to move everybody somewhere else. How about you give us the coordinates of the perimeter of this place. The three of us will go and spread out…maybe find Seth in the process…and try to find a way in. You head to TC. Have Max send another team out to assist us and get a plan going." Ash suggested._

 _"Look Ash, I don't know…"_

 _"Come on Zane…I know you hate leaving them there as much as I do…at least this way we are surrounding their perimeter…when you guys have a plan we will have the advantage."_

 _"Alright…okay…fine."_

Max couldn't believe it. Half of her family was trapped again…in some new hell with some new bad guy in her life. Why does this keep happening to her? Was a little peace too much to ask for? Could she at least deal with the current bad guys in her life before a new one jumps on the bandwagon? With tears in her eyes she hugged Zane again. Pulling away and looking around the room and catching the eyes of Mole, Zane and Alec she sighed.

"Alright…let's figure this bitch out…"

 _ **Okay so I know when I'm reading I like to have descriptions of how characters look so that I can picture them better in my head...I mean I picture them anyway but descriptions make it that much easier, however I really suck at the placements of descriptions in stories to keep the flow... SO I'm going to list some actors who I'd envision playing Max's siblings never shown on screen.**_

 _ **Kavi: Diego Boneta (with longish hair)**_ **(actor)**

 _ **Seth: Jesse Williams (actor)**_

 _ **Zane: Brant Daugherty (actor)**_

 _ **Vada: Naya Rivera (Actress)**_

 _ **Ash: Michael B Jordan (Actor)**_

 _ **Jondy: Jennifer Lawrence (Actress)**_


	5. Thoughts and Disaster

**Disclaimer: I own nothing...But still wishing I did.**

 **A/N: sorry for the delay so much has been going on the last couple weeks. Sorry this chapter is on the shorter side. I did have all intentions of making it longer, but I couldn't get the chapter to flow right. Still not convinced it does, but I've rewritten this about 15 times at least, so i figured i might as well let you all decide. As Always please Read and Review!**

It had been almost 24 hours since Zane had showed up on TC's doorsteps asking for help. In that same 24 hour period, they had sent out a recon team to assist the 09ers. Alec wanted to be on that team, but Max refused to let him go insisting he would be more useful on the retrieval team. Which yeah, she was right on that but it didn't change the fact that he was getting antsy, waiting wasn't his forte. It would be another few hours before Dalton checked in, maybe a ride on his Ducati would clear his head a little. After all, he now had to deal with the fact that Max's siblings wanted to stay here, so where did that leave him and Max? Was there even a him and Max? Would she need him around anymore? Then, there was the kiss…when were they going to have a chance to deal with that? Yeah, he really needed some clarity that only the view from the space needle or some scotch could give him. He walked out of command after giving Max the excuse that he wanted to rest up before they had to leave, which wasn't exactly a lie, he would just take a ride before going to rest.

It was right after the Berrisford incident he started coming up to the space needle. He understood why Max was drawn here. As he sat by the edge and looked at the city below, he contemplated on how complicated his life had become. There was a time in his life where he lived, breathed and would die for the Manticore values. The 09ers escape had put doubt in his heart but it was Rachel who had changed everything for him, for the first time he had let himself form a connection with someone, other than that required for missions. Sure, before the escape he had cared for his unit. Loved them even, but after his trip to Psy-Ops for merely being a twin of an escapee, he just couldn't bring himself to form those true bonds again. Rachel made him let his guard down, and in the end she had been killed, but she had shown him what was missing from his life. Something worth holding onto that wasn't just duty, discipline, and mission. Rachel had showed him what it was to love, but Max had shown him so much more. She had given him a sense of self, something no one else could ever give him. Love could change over the years, someone you once loved could become someone you can't look in the eye anymore. Just look at Max and Logan. Love could be taken away from you in a blink of an eye because of a stupid mistake or things beyond control, but no one could take away who he was. From the moment she named him, he had become Alec.

Who would've guessed that the charismatic X5 would fall so hard for the rogue? He laughed to himself. "Falling in love with Max….what the hell was I thinking?" he ran his hand through his hair and sighed. She pushed him, and made him push himself in ways no one else could. She lit a fire in him that he thought had been put out long ago. She made him want to do better, and be better. He went from only looking out for himself, to looking out for everyone. She had a way of making you care for her crazy causes, even if it would get you killed. _It's just cause she's hot ya know_. The words he had said to Logan not so long ago crept up on him. _But is it really?_ He thought. _Yeah, sure she's hot but so is every other transgenic female. So why her? Why is she the one that can make me feel any type of way about anything?_ He sighed again and looked at the sky, it was getting late. Although he was no closer to clearing his mind, he did admit to himself that he was indeed in love with Max.

As he stood up to leave the wind blew and a chill went through him to the bone. He ran down the stairs but as he approached his bike he felt a presence behind him. _Great…just what I need…_ As he turned to look at the new arrival a needle struck him in the neck a look of confusing flashed through his eyes as he fell to the ground. _Shit…Max_ was his last thought before total blackness took over.

 **(Back at Terminal City, a few hours later)**

Max paced command as Zane and Mole went over the final plan to jailbreak the Asylum. Dalton had checked in and the plan was a-go. Max had recruited Joshua to go and get the retrieval team Alec had put together to go over last minute details, which had consisted of 5 X5s, Alec, Talon, Quinn, Tyler & Harley & 3 transhumans Kelpie, Nix (short of Phoenix), and Mole. Max looked to the door as Josh rushed in.

"Can't find Alec…Not home. Not anywhere. No one see Alec. " Josh looked at Max with his big puppy dog eyes.

"What do you mean he's not home Josh, he said he was going home to rest"

"Alec not there. I check little fella. Medium fella gone."

"He can't be gone….Alec wouldn't just leave unless he had a good reason…he knows how important this is."

"Bike gone. Alec gone."

"Okay, there has got to be an explanation...Dix pull up the satellite feed leaving the sector….We need to know where he was headed and where he is now."

"On it Max."

" _Alec… where are you?"_ Max thought worriedly, as she hoovered over Dix's shoulder.

 **(Inside the asylum)**

Alec had a splitting headache. As he began to wake up, he noticed three things. The first of them being that the room he was in was freezing. The second was that the room smelled like Manticore…sterile with a hint of blood in the air. The third and the most aggravating of the three, he was strapped to a metal table, he could feel the cold hardness of the table beneath his back. He opened his eyes to look around him, but all he got when he did was a blinding white light. He quickly closed his eyes and tried to assess the situation.

 _Okay, so…the things I know, someone got the drop on me, drugged me and brought me here…where exactly is here and who for the love of…_ then it hit him. _They drugged me… Zane said something about the others being drugged during the fight…Okay…so who are these people? Manticore? White? Come on Alec think!_ He scolded himself. _Oh god….Max…the others…damn it! I finally have a chance to prove to Max I'm not a screw up and what do I do? SCREW IT UP! Well guess there's no point in crying over spilled milk. Just gotta figure out how to get the hell outta here…_

Alec slowly opened his eyes again letting his eyes adjust to the light, and turning his head to the left so the light wouldn't be so bright. He could see a mirror, assumedly double sided. A door next to the window… _potential escape route…_ Alec looked to the ceiling and could see air vents, _another potential way to escape._ He turned his head to the other side and noticed a surgical tray, filled with different syringes. _Great…more experiments._ He tried to lift his head to look by his feet but he couldn't. He was strapped down by the shoulders, so any leverage was near impossible. As he contemplated an escape plan the door to his left opened.

"Ah…494 how nice of you to finally come home." Alec remained quiet…trying to get a sense of the man in front of him. "What's the matter 494? Cat got your tongue?" Alec rolled his eyes and received a slap for the gesture. " Oh come on 494 surely you remember me…"

 *****Flashback******

 _Alec strapped to an upright chair, laser streaming in his eyes, flashes on the screen in front of him Rachel, the 09ers, traitor, rat, failure._

 _New scene. Man standing in front of him looking into his mind. 494 trying to keep him out, locking parts of himself away, the way they taught him to. His eyes…completely white, ghost like. His face….this man's face…_

"Ah so I see you're remembering….good. My designation is 115. I used to be in Psy Ops back at old Manticore."

"Yeah, you were in charge of mind fucks…I remember, you sucked at it." Another slap across his face, split his lip. He could taste the coppery blood in his mouth. He turned to the left and spit towards 115 "Figures the only way you could actually hit me is having me tied to a damn table."

115 walked towards the other side of the table and grabbed a syringe. Ignoring Alec's comment for the moment, as another Man walked into the room. Alec knew this man. Dr. Killoran he was the head doctor of "defective experiments" He got to take soldiers apart just to find out what made them tick, psychologically and physically. If you survived a day with him, you were never the same afterwards. An involuntary shudder made its way through Alec's body. The shudder was not lost on the new arrival.

"So 494 I see introductions are need not be. I'm only here to ask you a couple questions. Where is 452?"

"How should I know? I'm not her keeper." _I won't tell you anything…._ he thought to himself.

"Sarcasm will get you no-where here" Alec just raised his eye brows and smirked. "We know you're her second in command. We know you're close. You will tell us what we need to know, willing or not. 115 now."

Alec turned just in time to see a needle going into his arm. He looked at the doctor. "I won't tell you anything. You could never get anything out of me before what makes you think anything's changed?" Alec knew what he had to do, he had done it when they had questioned him about Rachel, so before the drug took effect he would have to make himself forget. He could not give them anything on TC…or Max. What did they want with her anyway?

"Well 494 it's been awhile since you were here last. We have new tricks to try. Although it's true we have failed with you before, but this time we are better prepared.

"My name is ALEC!" he spat at the doctor. As he hid the parts of himself that made him Alec away with his memories of his life and his friends, Max and TC, the last thing he saw was 115's smug face before blackness took over.

 **(Back at TC)**

Max was pacing again, and driving Mole insane.

"Sit down already! You walking around here like that is serving no purpose other than annoying the hell outta me." Max huffed but sat down next to Dix.

"Anything? Anything at all?"

Dix shook his head. This was taking too long. Max looked at the screen trying to figure out where Alec had been headed. _Where would he go? S_ he looked to the screen as if waiting for the answer to jump out at her, and there it was. In the distance on the screen was the space needle. Somewhere she herself had gone time and time again to think.

"I got it! Dix he went to the space needle."

"Max I doubt…"

"No, trust me on this Dix, check any video feed you can find around the space needle for the last 10 hours. Satellite, hover drone whatever…I know that's where he went."

Dix pulled up hover drone feed and sure enough Alec's bike was there on its side. Dix rewound the footage to hours earlier and watched as Alec pulled up. Seconds later a black SUV pulled up to the other side of the screen barely in view of the camera. As Alec comes out the door a man comes into view almost tiptoeing up behind Alec. Alec turned at the last second before they watched in horror as he collapsed and seized on the ground, knocking over his bike in the process. Mole caught the man putting something in his pocket.

"Dix rewind it back about 2 seconds. Guys his right hand. Mole said pointing to the man. "

"It's a syringe. Max it's gotta be them." Zane said.

"Then we need to get out there and bust his ass out along with everyone else's. Does everyone know the plan?" Zane and the others nodded. Zane was added to the retrieval team along with Max. She'd be damned if she was staying behind on this. "We leave at Dusk. Mole check in with Dalton, let him know what's going on. Verify that they brought in more vans of prisoners, see if he can get eyes on Alec."

"Already on it princess." Mole smirked with his cigar firmly in place.


	6. Finding Alec

**Disclaimer: Dark angel is still not mine...but damn it stop rubbing it in my face!**

 **A/N: SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE! My husband was in a car accident, on top of bachlorette party for my best friend and buying a house...It has been a crazy couple of weeks. But thank you so much for baring with me. Hope you like this next part please read and review! XOXO**

After 20 hours of constant torture, ranging in intensity. Alec was a bloody mess (in the literal sense.) They had broken him down physically, and mentally, between the mind fucks from 115 and the drugs they were giving him, on top of the torture techniques they were using to try and get information out of him. But he still refused to talk, not even a word or sound had escaped his lips since he screamed his own name. 115 couldn't believe he was yet to find any information in 494's mind. It was almost like he was a clean slate, but residual memories were left behind proving this to be untrue. His mind was worse than a jigsaw puzzle. For every compartment he broke into there was five more behind it. There was no way an X5 would be able to forget everything they know about themselves and others in such little time. It would have taken at least a day to forget as much information as 494 had. 494, had all of 5 minutes to make it happen before 115 had been in his mind. 115 knew 494 must have hidden it all away…but where? And how? 115 was almost excited for the challenge. Excited to tear down the X5 who had bested him before. Not this time…he would guarantee, this time 494 wouldn't get away unscathed.

Dr. Killoran decided that they would get nowhere tonight. Maybe a few days locked in the hole with no food and no water would suffice. 115 did as he was told, tossing 494's battered and broken body into the hole, locking the door behind him.

Alec tried to right himself when he came to, but he couldn't move. Everything hurt. He took stock of his injuries, and as far as he could tell there was not a part of his body that wasn't bruised, broken, burned, or bleeding. He couldn't see out of his left eye it was completely swollen shut and he was pretty sure his cheekbone was fractured. The room he was in was dark and cold, with virtually no light and a dirt floor. He could hear voices just outside the door and he strained to listen but to no avail. The strain exhausted him as he slipped again into peaceful unconsciousness.

 **(Outside the facility midnight)**

"So everyone knows what to do?" Everyone nodded. Max looked to Zane, Talon, Kelpie and Mole "Once we are inside you four are with me. Our main goal is getting everyone out. Tyler, Harley, Quinn and Nix your goal is demolition…Everyone knows what to do. Ash and Daltons groups will keep watch and back up if need be. Radio Silence while we are in the building unless things go FUBAR understood?"

"Ma'am yes Ma'am" everyone chorused.

"Good. Let's get this bitch over with."

Dalton and his team would clear the front. They had figured out that there were trip wires that would set off silent alarms all around the building, which he said was probably what got the 09ers caught. They were careful to avoid all of them and make it to the back of the building. Max and the others scaled the back of the building careful to avoid detection, waiting for the shift change to continue. They knew this task wouldn't be easy. By Daltons calculations there was at least 500 if not more transgenics and transhumans inside. He had also figured out that the floors and walls were soundproof. So the rescue teams would be free to clear the floors one by one. Max wasn't sure what they were really walking into. What conditions would her people be in? Would they be willing to leave with her? Would they meet resistance from their own kind? Would they have to kill their own kind to free others? These decisions terrified her… _that's why this is Alec's job, that's why he should be here…to make these calls…_ Max thought to herself. Letting the anger and worry go for the moment. Max slipped into her game face.

The teams were met with very little resistance on the roof and were able to stealthily knock out the enemy. Max walked up to the first guard tapping him on the shoulder and smiled at him right before her fist connected with his face. The other 4 guards simultaneously knocked out by the others. Max was getting anxious. Mole put a hand on her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. Max nodded letting him know she was good to continue. They climbed in through the roof entrance in the stairwell it was decided that the top 2 floors would be cleared by Zane and Talon. Kelpie would stay put on the roof since he could blend in with the walls. Max and Mole would take the first floor and the basement.

The first floor met little resistance, even though there were quite a few guards, and quite a few doctors in the hallways and rooms. All of them were easily, and stealthily subdued and tied together as they were found. Max and Mole opened every door and cleared every room. Every room they came to worst then the last. Transhumans and transgenics none in a fully coherent state. Some just seemingly asleep, unable to wake up. While others were hooked up to different types of tubes and machines. Things ranging from torture drugs, to blood transfusions, feeding tubes and breathing tubes. Things looked bad. There was no way they would be able to get everyone out safely without more help.

"Charlie, this is Alpha. We need Lily and Doc in here ASAP. Also call base. We are going to need some help. Over"

"Understood Alpha. Lily and Doc coming in, I'll call base. Over." Dalton replied

Lily and Doc got to work quickly. A lot of the transgenics had been through different forms of torture and tests and were in varying stages of healing. Others Lily was sure would not live if taken off the machines. It wasn't in Max to leave a man behind. So they would come back to them and figure out something. Lily had figured out most of the "seemingly asleep" transgenics were drugged with a sedative of some sort. Lily happened to have some smelling salts to wake the sedated transgenics and transhumans up. In the meantime Doc would be assisted by Dalton's team in getting the others out.

It wasn't till Max reached the last door on the floor she finally recognized one of the captured. Her sister Brin. Brin looked bad. What had happened to her sister since she saw her last? She was hooked up to tubes and IV's a machine was breathing for her. She looked at her sister who she noticed was significantly skinnier than she remembered. Up to this point she was convinced that her sister had died in the destruction of Manticore. This was a much worse fate. Max grabbed her hand, Brin opened her eyes and her eyes widened slightly as she squeezed Max's hand in hers. A few seconds past and she lost her battle with consciousness again. Max only let a few tears fall, she would get her sister back…one way or another. She turned to Mole wiping the tears from her eyes.

"We have more people to save. Let's finish this." Max said with pure determination in her eyes.

"You got it princess" Mole cocked his shotgun.

By this time Zane and Talon were on the first floor. Max asked for a quick report. As the quartet headed down the hallway towards the basement stairwell.

"Dude Max...3rd floor was much like this one sedated transgenics and transhumans. But the 2nd floor…Max, I have never seen anything so vile in my life, and I saw a lot of shit in Manticore." Talon said shaking his head.

Zane's face was horrified. "It was like walking into the scene of horror movie. Think Frankenstein or Saw… Max, there wasn't just transgenics, there was ordinaries in there."

Max gagged just thinking about it. The person in charge of this hell hole would pay. Not just for her people but for the ordinaries lives he took as well. She grabbed the gun from her waistband that Talon had insisted she take, telling her how Alec would kill him if anything were to happen to her on his watch. Max never thought she'd actually enjoy holding a gun and using it after what happened to Eva, but in this moment, the anger the worry and the animal and the soldier took over, 452 was now in charge, she was determined to get her people and any other innocents out of here.

Zane watched on as his sisters whole stance changed as she went for the gun, he was sure she hated. He knew in that moment his sister was gone. 452 used to make appearances back in Manticore, out of every ones inner animal, his baby sisters was the most intimidating. She was the baby, but the animal inside her had always out ranked any Alpha status in their unit by far, but she'd never use that part of her if she didn't feel she had to. 452 was on a mission. And 205 would be right there with her if it meant saving their family and saving their people. In an instant Zane let his animal, and the soldier in him take over him as well.

Talon and Mole followed suit. The quartet stealthily creeping down the basement stairs. When they got to towards the bottom Max signaled the others to stop. Using her enhanced hearing she could pick up 6 immediate heart beats near the bottom of the stairs. Max signaled to the others telling them the same. But she also noticed, at least 8 more sets of footsteps coming towards them. Max looked at the others and signed 8 more on the way at least. The hair on the back of Talons neck stood up as a rush of air came up the stairs. He grabbed Max's arm. He knew that smell 115's cologne. He signed back to her, Psy-Ops. The others took in a collected breath and looked towards Max. She nodded looked around and signed it's now or never at least they knew what they were up against. Everyone let out the breath they were holding. With one last look at the other Max gave the signal.

The guards at the bottom of the stairs were easily taken out, Mole and Talon recognized a couple from old Manticore. In the room at the bottom of the stairs there were two hallways. Max signaled Mole to come with her they would go left. And Talon and Zane would go right.

The first thing Talon noticed as they started down the hallway was the smell, burnt flesh, blood, and body odor. Zane could smell it too, and it was making his stomach turn. They walked on, running into a couple guards along the way taking them out with a few well-placed kicks and punches. The second thing he noticed was that the halls were eerily quiet. On the other floors, they could hear the slight humming of machines, but on this floor nothing. The first room they came to looked like an operating room. Silver tables with silver trays, blood stains on the floor and fresh blood on the tools on the table side tray. In the back of the room was a door. Talon went to open it when the door behind him closed. He instantly grabbed his gun and turned around. There stood 115 with a gun to Zane's head.

"Well, well, well…look at what we've got here. The reject and the traitor. How goes life on the outside 523?"

"Better than anything ever on the inside. Come on 115, you don't need to do this let him go. Help us get everyone out of here! You are one of us! Why are you working with them?!"

"I'm… one of you?" 115 let out a heinous laugh. "I'm BETTER than you! Why would I ever help any of you? I could make you turn that gun on yourself right now if I wanted to. But that would take the fun out of killing you myself. I have to ask you though, what's it like being the rejected little brother living in the shadow of a psycho traitor and a golden boy turned pathetic rat? You know it's been fun tearing 494 apart bit by bit in his mind tearing away everything that makes him…him. You wouldn't even recognize him if you saw him after everything we've done. " 115 laughed maniacally.

Zane's eyes widened, and Talon hung his head. He had never told Alec or anyone for that matter and as far as he knew no one knew except the ass-hats that made him that he shared some of the same genetic materials as 493 and 494. It would make sense that Psy-Ops would know, they needed to know everything about their subjects to better intrude their minds, God knows he'd been face to face with 115 more times than he'd care to admit. He was worried about his brother but that would have to wait for the moment. He looked up and locked eyes with Zane who had managed to pull an empty syringe, he had pocketed in case of emergency, out of his pocket and a plan began to form. He then looked 115 straight in the eyes.

"Where's my brother 115?" Talons eyes dangerously cold.

"I'll never tell you. I'll kill your friend here, and then torture you and your brother for the rest of your pathetic little lives. The psycho, the pathetic golden boy and the reject. Ha! You and 494 will be in a grave right next to that psycho waste in no time."

"SHUT UP! YOU STUPID FUCK! It's over, we have teams all over this place. We've already cleared the first 3 floors. We gave you the chance to come with us, but I guess you already chose your side."

115 smirked as he started to pull the trigger, Zane managed to plunge the needle in 115 an exact millisecond before the bullet released from the gun. 115 hand jerked at the last moment and instead of shooting Zane head on, grazed the side of his head leaving blood pouring in his face. Zane spun out of 115's grip as 115 pointed the gun towards Talon, Talon shot him square between the eyes. The guys shared a look before moving on to open the door behind Talon.

On the other side of the complex. Max and Mole were running into their own problems. Guards coming from every side. They took out as many as they could in hand to hand. But they were getting tired and they still had to find Alec and the others. Mole looked to Max, she knew they were outnumbered. All of a sudden a calm came over the room. Everyone stopped almost instantly as Mia's voice rang out over the crowd.

"Come on guys, let's not fight. It's time for you guards to get some shut eye. Lay down and get some rest." All the guards nodded and laid down where they stood, immediately asleep. "Max, girlfriend am I glad to see you!"

"Mia! I thought you and Dougie were headed to Canada?"

"Long story short we got caught at the border. And I was dragged back here. Dougie too. Friends of yours just let me out of a testing cell said to catch up with you here. Have you seen Dougie?"

"No, I haven't" Max thought about what Talon and Zane had told her…and she frowned "but that doesn't mean he isn't here somewhere. Help us clear the rooms and we'll see what we can find out."

The first room they came too was another operating like room, inside Krit was strapped to the metal table. Blood coming from different spots on his abdomen and arms. Max ran to his side and felt for a pulse. It was there but barely, if he was here the others had to be close. Max called Lily and Doc over the coms and told them the situation. Max kissed her brothers forehead and moved to the door in the back of the room. It was set up so someone could watch from the outside Max vomited in her mouth and looked to Mole. Same thoughts running through his head.

Zane and Talon had cleared their side. They had come across transgenics that Talon had recognized but none of Zane siblings. Most of the rooms on their side had been empty. They doubled back to meet with Max and Mole. Passing and stepping over seemingly sleeping guards. Zane passed the first room and saw Krit and Lily. His whole body tensed. Talon put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and they moved to the next room where Max and Mole stood.

Vada was laying on the table naked. Cuts, bruises and burns marred her body. Her eyes were forced open to look at the corner where Kavi was hanging from his arms at the ceiling. Everyone was stunned for a moment before a slight whimper from Kavi put everyone back into action. Zane took off his jacket and covered Vada as Max released the tools around her eyes. Mole and Talon worked on getting Kavi down. Both transgenics barely alive neither one coherent. Kavi was beaten his face totally unrecognizable. He had bullet holes in both knees. It seemed to be that, they had figured out Kavi and Vada had mated and they had been using one to torture the other.

Zane was shaking with rage. Max wasn't fearing much better. Someone was going to pay for the damage caused. Mole was getting anxious. He cocked his shot gun and everyone looked up.

"I know this sucks. But we got to keep moving. Find the rest...and find Alec." Everyone nodded, he was right.

The next room they came to they found Seth. At first he didn't seem to be breathing. Mole checked his pulse and miraculously there was one but it was shallow. Doc and Lily took over, intubating him so he could breath.

The next room was seemingly empty. However when they opened the door in the back of the room. Dr. Killoran sat holding a gun. Mia walked in front of the others, and watched the doctor with complete disgust.

"Dr. Killoran, now you know you don't want to shoot us. How about giving the gun to me." Dr. Killoran nodded and handed her the gun. "Now you're gonna be a good little doctor and tell me where I can find MY DOUGIE! And our friend Alec!"

"Dougie died, during an experiment with 115, brain aneurism. Shame too, I had big plans for a man who was immune to mind control and Psy-Ops abilities."

Mia dropped the gun and lunged towards the doctor. Tears rolling down her face. Max had barely grabbed her before her hands were around the doctors' throat.

The doctor never even flinched, just continued giving the information Mia had requested from him. "494…Alec as you call him is in the hole. Last room center of the hallway." As he started to stand he blurred and grabbed the gun Mia had dropped and shot. The whole room seemed to go in slow motion, no one could react fast enough. Mia caught a bullet right between the eyes. As her body fell Max, Mole, Zane and Talon all pulled their weapons on the doctor.

"Why do you all look so shocked? Did you really think an ordinary could pull all this off?!"

"WHY?! Why would you do this to your own people?!"Max yelled tears in her eyes for her fallen friend. Mia's blood pooling at her feet.

"Because I CAN! Because I'm Manticore's best kept secret. A transgenic doctor to figure out what makes other transgenics tick. Clever huh?"

"You sick FUCK! That's not clever….it's called being a Psychopath! You killed so many of us. So many just to 'find out what makes us tick' WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT?!"

"Oh 452…the whole reason a whole unit of transgenics attempted escape. You think I didn't know about your seizures back then? HA! You were going to be my next experiment. You and your unit always bugged me…yet intrigued me all at the same time. A unit so close, with more free will and free thought than any other Manticore unit ever created. But why? Why was your unit so special? What made you all so different? I'll admit it was fun getting to experiment on your 'brothers and sisters' did you know 471 screams like a little girl? Oh and 111 she was fun…."

All Max could see was red. She didn't want to hear anymore. She did the only thing her brain could process at the moment aimed her gun and pulled the trigger, before anyone, including the good doctor could react. Zane went to grab her shoulder and she brushed him off. She was on a mission. Get to Alec, and get the hell out of here. Dropping the gun, Max and the others walked to the final room in the center of the hallway. Max opened the door and couldn't breathe the smell was beyond horrible. The room was really small but curled in the fetal position, and huddled in the dark corner of the dirt floor was a filthy, and severely beaten Alec. A quick scan of his body showed nowhere that wasn't burnt, cut or bruised. His shirt and pants were ripped. Max knelt down and ever so gently laid a hand on his shoulder. _What did they do to you Alec?_ She thought to herself.

"Alec?"

 ** _TO BE CONTINUED..._**


	7. Confessions

**Disclaimer: Still not mine...just borrowing the characters :)**

 **A/N: SO SORRY its been so long. we ran into some house troubles I just didn't have a chance to update in between it all. I've had this part done for a while. I wanted to initially make this chapter longer but it's been so long since I updated, and by the end I really wanted Talon to have his moment... so the next chapter won't take as long to post I'm already working on it. Thank you all for baring with me! Please read and review!**

A sound, a sweet, desperate sound in the distance was all he heard, barely audible but the emotion that radiated throughout his mind with the sound was strong. Was it even a sound? Or just a cruel joke his mind was playing? For a moment he believed that was the case, but then another sound came, the same sweet, desperate feeling accompanying it but all he could think about was the slight pain that his body felt with it. _No…not safe…115…trick…_ he thought as he let himself wander even further into his own mind. Away from the pain, and away from the sound that accompanied it. If he couldn't hear the sound, he wouldn't feel the pain, he would be safe, or at least that's what he told himself.

Max refused to leave his side. She had found him and went into auto pilot. Barking orders at anyone who would listen. They had managed to get base to send them multiple vans all stolen from around the city of Seattle, the thugs they stole them from wouldn't be missing them much anyway, commandeering other vans from the Asylum, they managed to get everyone alive out. It took 8 trips all together and they had to be extremely careful, taking different routes back each time. The critical cases were moved first including Brin and Seth, along with Lily and Doc. Max refused to leave until the Asylum was up in flames, but she wouldn't let Alec go without her either. So she arranged for Alec to be the last to loaded up. Dalton and Ash set off the charges and the building became ablaze with the doctor, 115 and all their dead left inside. They couldn't risk a proper burial for them all. Bowing their heads in a show of respect, Max and the others piled into the last two Vans, as a single tear slid down her cheek for her fallen family.

The ride back was completely silent. Talon and Dalton sat with Max trying to keep Alec's body still during transit as to not irritate any of his injuries. When they pulled up to the front of the infirmary, Talon grabbed Max's arm.

"Max I…"

"Talon, please can it wait?" Max said opening the door, without giving him a chance to answer.

"Sure, yeah….no big…" he said more to himself than anyone else. Running his hand through his hair in a very Alec fashion, he jumped out behind Max and helped her and Dalton carry Alec inside.

24 hours came and went, much like the medications in the infirmary. Talon put together a small group for a raid on a medical warehouse outside sector 7. Some of the less injured transgenics started waking up between their metabolisms and the IV fluids. Mole and some others had taken point on asking each one what happened, how they were caught, what the doctor did to them. They had to make sure there was no permanent damage to any of them. If they knew what the doctor did to them, maybe it would help figure out how to help them and some of the others.

Every account he heard was worse than the last. This "Manticore Asylum" had been up and running since the fall of Manticore. One transgenic who had asked to be called Jed, was one of the first in the facility. He recalled that at first it functioned like Manticore, but about 2 months in things had started to change. All of a sudden people in his unit started disappearing, days at a time, they would come back and not be able to recall where they had been or what happened. When people in his unit started not coming back at all, he decided it was time to get out of there. He and another unit mate had decided to run for it. They made it as far as the woods, and they became surrounded by guards they had never seen before. They tried to fight but the last thing he could remember was calling out to 142 before the darkness. He told Mole that, the darkness would come and go, sometimes they'd wake him up to test his pain threshold. Sometimes they'd wake him up to mess with his mind. He never saw anyone from his unit after that, but anytime the darkness wasn't surrounding him he was being tortured, or tested for something. That's what had bugged Mole the most.

After checking on her siblings and the others, Max had finally sat down to rest next to Alec's cot. He still hadn't woken up, but some of the cuts and bruises were already fading. Max figured a blood transfusion may speed up the process, so she hooked herself up to some tubing, connecting the other in Alec's IV. She held his hand, and rubbed her hand through his messy hair.

"You know, going out on your own was pretty stupid, even for you Alec, but I, uh, if you wake up I won't yell at you. I need you right now, I can't handle all of this alone. I don't know if you can even hear me. Lily said you aren't responding to their tests. Just…please Alec, I'll do anything if you'll just open those sparkling hazel eyes of yours, or make some smart ass comment." When she realized he didn't react at all to her words she laid her head next to him on his cot.

Max woke up in a haze. She realized immediately she was no longer in the infirmary, but laying on a cot in a small Manticore like cell. She knew she was still in a dreamlike state. _Why does this happen every time I give blood to someone?_ As she looked around she realized Alec was standing by a small window.

"Alec?" She called out but he didn't seem to hear her. When she reached out to touch his shoulder he grabbed her hand.

"Max? What are you doing here?"

"Saving you, what else?" She said rolling her eyes. Alec looked around nervously and pulled her to him. Kissing her forehead slightly he pulled back.

"How'd you get in here? No one should have been able to get in here…"

Max could see the wheels turning in his head…he was going to run. She couldn't let him do that so, she leaned up and kissed him. At first he wouldn't respond, but Max was persistent, she caressed his bottom lip in hers, licking and nipping, urgently begging him to respond. It was almost like a light switch being flicked on. As he urgently responded allowing her tongue access his hands cupped her ass as he pulled her closer to him, wrapping her legs around him. He pushed her back against the door to free his hands. There wasn't a part of her body he didn't need to touch in that moment. And he needed her more than ever. As he reached for the hem of her shirt she stopped him.

"Alec, please…listen to me…" She tried between his kisses, stopping his hands from removing her shirt.

All of a sudden, she felt her own consciousness threatening to take hold. "Alec listen to me, I don't have long. Right now you're in TC. You're safe. No one is going to hurt you anymore. But you need to wake up. TC needs you. I need you."

Alec gave her his trademark smirk and he caressed her face she thought maybe she was getting through to him. That was until he practically threw her. "Nice try 115." Before she could respond Alec took off running, further into his mind. In the same moment she tried to run after him, she felt someone tugging on her arm.

Max awoke with a start and got an ear full from Lily, about how irresponsible and dangerous it was for Max to hook herself up to a transfusion kit without telling anyone, but in the same breath she told Max it had also seemed to help. His vitals were definitely better, he still refused to wake up.

"He's hiding inside himself. He thinks he's still in with 115.

"Max, there's no way you could possibly know that for sure."

"Lily I know what I saw, and I know what I heard him say."

"You were dreaming Max. It happens…your mind went to worst case scenario."

"Okay. For arguments sake let's just say I'm right. How would we get him back from that?"

"Well, for arguments sake, I honestly don't know. We'd just have to wait and see if he came back to us. We'd need to make him feel as safe as possible. Surround him with people who love and care for him. Smells that would be familiar to him. But even once he wakes up, there's no telling if he'll be the same Alec we all know and love. If he felt the need to hide himself away… he could wake up perfectly fine, or as 494 with no memory of Alec…or worse he could not remember anything or anyone at all. We won't know though, not really, not until he decides he feels safe enough to wake up."

"Okay…thanks Lily. How much longer does he have to stay in the infirmary? I'm sure you could use the room….and his injuries may heal better if he's more comfortable, in his own bed, back at our apartment."

"Well I'm sure we could arrange for him to go home. Maybe tomorrow? You're right we could use the room. But I need someone with him at all times. And I need someone to call me if there is any changes in him at all. If he sneezes, coughs…hell even if he smiles in his sleep I need to know about it."

"That can be arranged. I'm sure I could find some volunteers…"

"I'm in…." Talon said leaning against the door.

Both transgenics jumped not noticing the new arrival. Looking up at the doorway Lily and Max both nodded. Lily said she had to make rounds but would be back in a few hours. Talon pulled up a seat next to Max. Dropping a Twinkie in her lap.

"Thought maybe you could use a bite. Haven't seen you leave this infirmary since we got everyone back. How's the family."

"They're going to make it. They've got some new scars both physical and mental, but they're some of the strongest people I know. They'll get through this. We'll get through all of this. Together."

"SO…uh…how's our boy doin"

"He's locked himself in his own mind, or at least that's my theory. Lily seems to have some doubts…"

"Nah, I think it could make sense. We were taught how to make ourselves forget…maybe he found another way instead to protect us all, including himself. If anyone could figure something like that out, it would be him. I didn't know him that well back in Manticore, but I heard the stories. Everyone knew he messed up bad, something about falling for the target and failing the mission. He was different after that…They thought they made him forget, made him not care. And on the outside it looked to be true. You'd never know if you didn't know him, but we're trained to notice subtle differences in behavior. If you looked close enough, you could see the haunted look in his eyes, the slight recollection of betrayal, and pain." Max just nodded as silence fell between them again Talon hesitated, this wasn't how he wanted to start this conversation…but would there ever be a 'good time'.

"I uh…" he coughed and Max raised an eyebrow "I never told him that we were brothers. Like um, you and Krit situation. Only I'm the younger sibling in this scenario. There was just never a time to..." Max's eyes widened as Talon rambled on running his hands through his hair and she took in the information. Running through her memory trying to pin point how she didn't see this before. Some of his movements so similar to Alec's, same Hazel orbs…yeah his face was obviously different but the similarities looking at him now seemed to slap her in the face. She did the first thing that came to mind and punched his shoulder. "OUCH! Wait just one second! Just cuz I'm his brother doesn't mean I'm filling in for his punching bag position!"

"Why didn't you tell him? How long have you known?!" Max knew she shouldn't be angry, and she wasn't not really this was amazing news. Alec had a brother…a real one, one he could get to know…just then a thought hit her, _that means he was Ben's bro…oh no…_ "Please tell me you didn't go to Psy-Ops because of my unit…"

A dark look passed through his hazel eyes and he didn't have to answer. But he ran his hand through his hair, "I found out about it at the same time I was dragged into Psy-Op's the first time. When your unit escaped. I was 7… It's okay, I never really hated your unit for it. I understood because given half the chance, I would have done the same thing to protect any one of my unit mates. Besides the past is the past." Max felt like her heart was breaking. Another person, hurt because of her. Talon recognized the look flash through her eyes and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Max, seriously I don't hate you guys. You can't blame someone for their instincts, especially when the instinct is telling them to protect one of their own…" Max nodded in understanding, grateful for the lack of animosity towards her and her family for once. Talon continued "The reason I didn't say anything before was simple, there just really wasn't any reason to. Being stuck in Manticore, there is really no point to admitting family relations. I haven't said anything lately, for the sole reason that there has never been a right time. It was something I wanted to sit down and chat about over a beer or two… and it just never happened."

"And now you're afraid you'll never get the chance…"

"Yeah…"Talon looked down slightly ashamed. Max put her free hand over his.

"He's gonna wake up Talon. I know he is. We just have to give him a chance."

"I hope you're right."

 _"Me too…"_ thought Max.

 **To Be Continued...**

 **Please read and review :)**


	8. Waking up Alec

**Disclaimer: I own nothing :(...**

 **A/N: Sorry it took so long again! We are finally in our new house, and everything is set up! Please read and review! Thank you all!**

The couple weeks following were pretty much a blur. One thing was for sure, Max and the others were starting to lose hope in Alec waking up. The majority of the transgenics that had been at the Asylum had awoke and began the healing process. Most decided to stay, however a select few decided that even though the 09ers assisted in saving their sorry asses, they would not be led by one of them, so they took off on their own. Which at this point was fine by Max and the others. More transgenics staying meant more mouths to feed, which meant more supply runs without Alec in charge. Talon had taken up point on supply runs but he wasn't Alec. Most of Alec's other jobs had been split between Zane and Mole, but again…they weren't Alec.

The moral of the troops was slowly dwindling with each passing day with no change in progress from their SIC. At this point all that was left was a couple deeper scars and a couple broken bones that for whatever reason were taking longer to heal than they should. Lily had started a feeding tube in addition to his IV fluids after a week of no change from Alec. Alec's body and metabolism were working overtime to repair the damage that had been done. He was now in his own bed in the apartment he had picked for himself and Max at the beginning of the siege. Max had been pissed when she found out he had moved her in with him. But he had been right. It only made sense for the leaders of TC to be in relatively the same space for easy access for their people.

Joshua had been a frequent visitor. Their philosophical pal, had constant words of encouragement to try and get Alec to wake up. He would tell him about everyone and everything. His favorite topic though was baby Hope.

"She's getting big medium fella. Really smart. Always learning something new. Yesterday…Yesterday she took steps…and then she fell and Joshua scared, but Gem say she okay…she learns lots faster than ordinary. Medium fella has to wake up. Need you. All of us. Little fella too." Rubbing his hand through the smaller mans hair. Josh turned to see Mole standing at the door.

"Alright dog boy, you're needed in the mess hall. Talon's got a new shipment in. I'll keep an eye on princess"

"Gotta go Alec…Wake up soon Kay?" with one last pat to Alec's hand Josh was off towards the mess hall.

"Pretty Boy, this place is going to the dogs without you. Some of the Alphas are already talking about taking advantage of the fact that you're taking a cat nap. Moral is down, and without a SIC to back up Max…just if you care about Max…hell if you care about TC as much as I think you do, you need to wake up yesterday kid. Come on don't make me beg…" When nothing changed Mole took the seat that Joshua had just occupied. "I'm serious Alec, you got to wake up soon, your contacts wont deal with anyone but you. The queen bitch is bitchier than ever. With you hurt, and her rug-rat brothers and sisters here shes pulling herself thin. Too thin. She's not eating or sleeping. If she's not in command she's in the infirmary; if she's not there she's here. I'll give the bitch credit she is doing everything she can. But the Alphas and a lot of the others are getting restless. The longer they are pent up the worse it's going to get. She isn't exactly Susie Sunshine when it comes to the people. She doesn't know everybody's abilities like you do, no one does man. We need you kid…and If you ever tell anyone I said that. I'll deny it, then I'll kill you!"

Mole sat in silence, missing the playful retorts he would get from his friend. He talked to Alec for another couple hours or so until Talon came by to relieve him. Others like Luke and Dix stopped in to pay respects and see how their SIC was holding up. Gem and Dalton brought by baby Hope. They stayed and talked to Talon for a bit. Trying to get a status update. But Talon only knew as much as anyone else at this point. Max had kept him in the loop as much as she could, but when there was no change, there was no updates to tell. Talon sat next to the bed with his feet propped up next to Alec. He was finally alone with his brother.

"Alec, bro come on. Stop leavin me hangin. There is so much to tell you. So many new hot transgenic females coming in every day. Mole started making some moonshine, potent enough to get one of us drunk. It's actually pretty disgusting, taste like sewer water, but the effect, totally worth it. Come on man…I...gotta tell you some important things too. Things I didn't get a chance to say before...please"

Talon sighed, Max would be home to relieve him soon. But he'd just be spending another night on another supply run, trying to make something out of nothing. Something Alec had been so good at. Talon got up to stretch. In that moment Alec's breathing pattern changed, and his finger twitched. If he wasn't transgenic, he would have missed it all together it was so subtle but you would have thought Alec got up and started dancing. Talon was on the coms, that everyone who visited had been forced to wear, calling Lily and Max to let them know what just happened so fast. Max was even faster getting there. Lily slightly behind her.

Lily began running all the normal tests, reflexes, pupil dilation, blood pressure and temperature. With each test Lily seemed to have just a little more hope. Turning to Max and Talon her face became serious again.

"I don't want everyone to get excited, because he's nowhere near out of the woods yet. He is starting to respond to my tests so he is starting to come out of this, but we don't know what condition his minds going to be in after what he went through at the hands of 115, so just be prepared. I'm going to stop the pain killers. This should help bring him the rest of the way out."

Max called to let command know what was going on, and where she would be if she was needed. Talon called Zane and asked him to take point on the supply run for the night. If his brother was going wake up, he was going to be there.

Hours went by with the only change being his breathing pattern. When he would seem like he's starting to wake up his breathing would pick up like he was in pain, and then it would go back to normal. Max and Talon would try to coax him awake every time his breathing would pick up. Begging and pleading with whatever god there was to please let him hear them. The night came and went but in the early morning hours it seemed like his "waking moments" were getting less and less painful. Finally, as the sun came up over the pacific Alec opened his eyes for the first time in weeks.

Neither transgenic knew what to say. They had been talking to Alec for so long trying to get him to wake up, but now that he was looking at them neither one cold find words. Lucky for them, Mole happened to walk in for a progress report. And everyone jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Morning Princess, so glad you finally decided to join the party!"

Alec took a hesitant look around the room and they could smell the fear pouring off of him. Max hoped it was just the shock, but she emotionally felt a wall go up around her heart, bracing itself for the fear she would not voice. Alec didn't remember them.

"Alec?" she examined.

"I…What happened?" he quizzed.

"Short version? You were kidnapped, tortured and we rescued your ass." Max told herself she'd give him the rest of the details later.

"Okay…so my next question, where am I?" Alec ran his hands through his hair with a grimace of pain at the motion.

"Your room, in TC."

"Okay…" The fear was gone, but the questions written all over his face didn't make anyone in the room feel any better. It was almost like he was trying to find missing pieces of a puzzle he hadn't even begun to piece together yet.

"Alec, why don't you relax a minute. I'm going to call the Doc that's been watching over you. Her name is Lily. She may be able to answer some of your questions. But she may also want to check you over now that you're awake." Max reassured.

Alec nodded his head in agreement and relaxed back into the bed. He took notice of the people in the room. A lizard man, a teenager, and a beautiful woman. Quite the odd group. He thought to himself. He just wished he could recall who they all were. There was something in the back of his mind begging him to remember. Her scent, her voice, everything about her screamed for recollection, but to no avail. It was kind of like when you have something at the tip of your tongue, but no matter how hard you try you can't get it out, only it was his memory he couldn't recall.

Lily walked in through the door, and explained to Alec, in a little more detail what had happened. At least the parts that they knew. At the mention of 115, his mind was spinning, as if trying to piece things together. Flashes kept hitting him. Numbers and kids marching. Words…Duty, Discipline, Mission. Steel tables. Doctors and screaming… _was that his own scream?_ Feelings, fear, hurt, anger, frustration all ran through him at once...Max recognized the look.

"Alec, what is it? Did you remember something?"

"Just flashes. A number 331845739494. And kids…marching…drills…I'm one of them. Doctors, then someone 's screaming…I think it's me." Everyone shared a look.

"That's good Alec, You're remembering pieces of your time at Manticore…it's not much, but it's a start. As long as you keep having flashes. There's a chance you may get your full memory back. But you have to be patient. It's going to take some time, and there are somethings you may never get back or recall, but we will help you through those things if we can." Lily said trying to sound hopeful. She checked him over one last time, and reassured him that if he needed anything she was just a phone call away. She still wanted to keep a close eye on him, at least until he was fully healed physically.

"It's good to have ya back kid." Mole said slapping Alec on the back. Turning to Max he said, "I'm gonna head back over to command and let the others know."

"Mole just keep the extent of his memory loss to the inner circle. As far as everyone else is concerned. He's healing and memories are coming back fast. There is no use in worrying the masses."

"Or having the masses think he's weak" Mole said only loud enough for her to hear. Nodding Max agreed.

With Lily and Mole gone the three remaining transgenics exchanged nervous glances. Alec looked at both transgenics. _Well this is awkward…what do you say to people who remember you but you can't remember them?_ The same thought must have gone through Talon and Max's heads because at the exact same time they blurted out.

"So…." Alec couldn't help but laugh. And Talon and Max started laughing, and for the first time since they found out about the Asylum Max felt a slight relief on her shoulders. Max tried again.

"So, how are you really feeling?"

Alec huffed, he knew the question was innocent but part of him felt on guard and he had no clue as to why. So he went with a cop out.

"I'm alright."

"Yeah, okay sorry I forgot for a second. Alec's 'Always alright'"

Alec frowned for a second as he ran a hand through his hair as images started running through his mind. Images of him and every moment he had ever had with Max flashed through his mind. It started with a number 452. Psy-Ops, then words, traitor, enemy, rat. Then more images. Two names, Alec and Max. A Kiss. Feelings and emotions ranging from extreme happiness to extreme hurt and everything in between. Conversations and memories flashing quickly through his mind.

 *****FLASHBACK*****

 _He was standing at a locker getting what looked like packages out of a messenger bag. When the beautiful girl walked over to his locker. He tried to pretend he didn't see her, but he knew it was pointless._

 _"Hey"_

 _"Hey Max"_ _he noticed she looked nervous almost uncomfortable, and he raised an eyebrow._

 _"Listen, if you ever want to talk…"_

 _Oh god he knew where this was going…all because he let her catch a glimpse of weakness. He would not have Max of all people feeling sorry for him…he didn't want, or need her pity._

 _"About What?" he cocked at her. He saw the hurt flash through her eyes but in an instant it was gone. Damn It he thought...he didn't want to hurt her. He just didn't want her feeling sorry for him. Not Max._

 _"About…anything."_

 _He just couldn't help himself…_

 _"Now, why would I want to do that?" He smirked_

 _"Just consider the offer open"_

 _He couldn't tell, was she being sincere? He looked at her face again as the slight hurt passed over again. Crap…maybe she was being sincere. I can fix this he thought…._

 _"Alright." He paused for a moment as she started to turn away he rubbed his hand through his hair "Listen." Pausing another moment waiting for her to face him, was it hope that passed through her eyes just then? No, it couldn't have been, this is Max we're talking about here. He thought to himself. "Thanks for saving my ass"_

 _He watched as her emotions faltered a little, he almost smirked...almost._

 _"You're alright?"_

 _This was the opening he had been waiting for. He gave her his best smirk and let it settle in._

 _"I'm always alright" and he turned walked away._

"Alec? Earth to Alec! Did you remember something else?"

"Yeah…You…. Max" he said smirking.

Max didn't know what to do or say. But in an instant the happy moment turned disastrous as Alec's body went ridged and he began to seize. Max sat quickly on the bed and held him to her. Needlessly yelling for Talon to get her emergency supply of tryptophan and to call Lily, both of which he was already in the process of doing. Max shoved the tryptophan down Alec's throat forcing him to swallow. Pulling him towards her. She watched as the pain flashed over his face and his body worked against him.

By the time Lily got there. Alec had passed out, with minor tremors still running through his body every few minutes. Lily looked to Max.

"What happened right before the seizure."

"He said he remembered me. He smirked and then he seized."

"The memory of you may have triggered others. His brain could be overloaded with information right now; he has to sort through it all. Which is causing the chemicals in his brain to unbalance and the seizure to start. Just keep giving him Tryptophan as needed. I'm on call if you need me"

Talon followed Lily out, obviously he wouldn't be able to talk to his brother today. He needed to get some rest, but he figured he'd check into command first and follow up with Zane about the supply run. Max promised to call him should Alec's situation change at all. As soon as the door shut behind Talon, he heard the slight catch of breath and a hushed cry. Max had been holding so much in lately. He knew she hadn't been eating or sleeping, but to what extent no one really knew. Max wasn't one to be overly emotional, so to hear her let out just a little weakness behind her own closed doors, broke him for a moment. It was all he could think about all the way to command.

Max's was exhausted; emotionally and physically she was drained. As she heard her apartment door shut she lost the little self-control she had left, and she cried. She cried for Alec, her siblings, her friends and the family she was now a part of. She cried over the siege, and the position her people were now in. She cried over the helplessness she felt when it came to being a leader of people who didn't respect her because of the childhood she ran away from. She cried over everyone they'd lost along the way. She collapsed in the seat next to Alec as she cried. Laying her head on his bed. Holding his hand in hers she fell asleep with tears running down her cheeks for the first time in at least a month.


	9. heart to hearts

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately still not mine...**

 **A/N: Thank you for all your reviews it is greatly appreciated!**

Max was never one for sleep; her shark DNA often made it difficult for her. However, her shark DNA was not to blame recently. She had been exhausted emotionally, physically, and mentally mix that with the fact that she couldn't remember the last time she ate something and it was a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, with the events over the last few weeks she couldn't bring herself to sleep or eat. There was too much going on, too much to worry about. So when she finally did fall asleep, holding Alec's hand with her head on his bed, she slept for almost 24 hours. Which was near impossible for an X5 with Shark DNA. When Joshua had found her just a couple hours after she had fallen sleep he had placed her next to Alec on the bed. He would have taken her to her own bed, but he couldn't get her to let go of Alec's hand.

Alec's mind was now in overdrive. Trying to piece together the broken fragments of his memory was taking its toll. In the last 24 hours since he woke up and seized. His mind had been in a healing process of sorts. On the outside it looked like he was merely sleeping, but in reality his mind was working overtime, working through lost memories. Max had been the key to unlocking it all. Alec had a failsafe just in case he wasn't found by Max and the others. From the moment he woke up strapped to the metal table his mind had worked to lock away his memories as far back in his mind as he could. Far enough back that even he couldn't access them. But he needed a key to unlock them. The only key he knew 115 and his mind tricks wouldn't be able to mimic. Max and her attitude towards him. Had 115 found and tried to access his memories, he would have lost every memory forever. His only hope had been TC find him before that and Max reacting in her typical Max, defense mechanism in place, self. When she triggered the first memory, she opened a flood gate in his mind. Now it was up to him to piece through and make the memories make sense. His mind was getting things back in order but it was taking some time. Having an _eidetic memory was great…when you didn't have to reorganize your memories._

 _Max started to stir. She hadn't felt this warm or this rested in…well probably since Manticore, after spending the night in a sibling's cot when she would have a seizure. She stretched in a very feline like way, subconsciously cuddling next to the source of the warmth. When she opened her sleep hooded eyes, she realized the source of the heat was Alec. Looking him over she realized, he hadn't woken up since he seized, so she had to wonder to herself_ _how in the hell did I end up in bed?_ _Was she that exhausted that she didn't remember climbing in? She decided to take a moment and look around the room. Curled up in a very puppy-like fashion, in the chair next to Alec's bed, sound asleep was Joshua. She had her answer. The big fella was looking out for her. She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep. As she rolled over to get off the bed, she heard hushed voices coming from the living room._

Zane had been so worried about his little sister. He had checked on some of the others at the infirmary, but with everything as hectic as it had been the last few days he had only seen Max in passing. But she looked even skinnier than she should, and looked like she hadn't slept a wink in weeks. He figured it had been time for a visit, so with Ash in tow they had made their way over to Max and Alec's to find her sleeping. Joshua had said she had been sleeping for a while. This had Zane even more worried, since Shark DNA was supposed to prevent those with it from sleeping long hours. So Zane and Ash had decided to wait around. Both transgenics looked up when the door to Alec's room opened and Max appeared.

"Hey Baby Sister." Ash said beating Zane to it.

"Ash! Zane! Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, everyone's fine as far as we know. Talon's checked in a few times since we've been here." Zane answered smiling at the confusion on his baby sisters face.

"…how long have you been here?"

"Just a few hours. You've been sleeping since yesterday morning" Ash laughed at the panicky look on his sisters' face. Taking pity on her he continued "No worries Max. Big brother Zane over here and that lizard lookin guy…uh Mole?" Max nodded "Yeah, well they've had this place under control for you."

"Thanks guys. How are the others?" Max moved to sit between her brothers on the ratty old couch Alec had found for them before this whole Asylum mess.

"Brin has had 3 transfusions. Since you last checked in. Whatever drug they had running through her veins, her body had a hard time getting rid of but she is finally breathing on her own. Seth is still healing. He's quiet though and won't really say much to anyone right now. Kavi and Vada won't look at each other, but refuse to leave the others side so whatever happened there, neither one is read to talk about. Syl is babying Krit, who like the others is more quiet than normal, but he's the better off out of everyone else. Jondy has been bouncing room to room just trying to comfort everyone." Max had been deep in thought as Zane had updated her on her siblings. She wanted to tell them about the others… Zack, Ben and even Jace. She figured they had known about TInga. Zack must've told everyone. But she had to wait. Everyone needed to hear what happened especially to Zack and Ben from her, but she didn't want to have to repeat the story over and over again. so it would have to wait until they were all able to be in the same place.

"So hows your boyfriend?" Zane asked

"We're not like that…"

"Yeah…sure you're not Maxie."

"Okay, so we might have been, on our way to that or something like it, before all this happened. But now? I don't even know if he is still going to remember me when he wakes up."

"Maxie, I only spent a little while with the two of you, but trust me when I say that boy in there loves you. There is no way in hell he could ever permanently forget you." Zane said holding his sister in a hug.

"Yeah, well I've never been that lucky. I'm poison, just like Renfro said. Everyone I've ever loved ends up hurt or dead because of me."

"Oh come off it! Look, Miss Theworldisonmyshouldersandeverythingismyfault… NONE of this is your fault. Sure it's thanks to you that they're all out in this crazy world. But what happened after, you could never have imagined it. Don't blame yourself for the shit hands that we got dealt!" Ash exclaimed getting slightly pissed his little sister became a "woe is me" whiner. Sure, she had always been sensitive, and took losses to heart, but he had never seen her just outwardly blame herself for all the bad shit in the world. This was not the brave, strong willed, stubborn little girl he remembered. He had to stop and wonder what had happened to her along the way.

Max looked slightly taken aback by Ash's words, but at the same time she had to agree with him to an extent. Not all of this was her fault. But they didn't know yet about Ben and Zack. She had to wonder if they would still stick around once they found out. The siblings sat in silence for a moment, none too sure what to say. Max wondered if she should tell them now, just get it over with; but the choice was taken from her as a noise came from Alec's room. As she ran in to see what was the matter she stopped dead when she saw Joshua bear hugging Alec.

"Alec remember big fella; Medium fella remember Joshua!"

"Yeah, buddy how could I forget? …Okay… Josh it kinda hurts when you squeeze like that!" Alec screeched slightly pained.

"Joshua sorry! No mean to hurt Alec! Alec good?"

"Yeah. I'm always alright, No worries." At this Alec and Josh noticed the visitors.

"Little fella! Alec remember us!" Joshua beamed.

"I can see that big fella! How are you feeling?"

"115's whammy is no joke."

"Yeah well, you won't have to be worrying about him or Killoran anymore. Maxie here took care of the good doctor. And your boy Talon took out 115, saving my life in the process." Zane reassured.

Alec cocked a _"We will talk about this later"_ eyebrow at Max. Looking to the others around the room Alec started to feel uncomfortable. Being mind fucked and tortured, on top of feeling weak in front of people he barely knew was not okay with him or any X5 for that matter. But he had to know one thing. "Did you find the others?" Max looked at Alec for a moment before deciding how she would answer.

"Yeah, we found them." Sparing the details for later. Max could tell how uncomfortable Alec was. So she decided to try and clear the room. "Joshua, can you head over to command? Let them know Alec's awake and find Talon, let him know too?"

"Sure little fella! Glad you're back Medium fella!" Josh patted Alec's back and with that he was gone.

Taking the hint from his little sister Zane saved her the awkwardness of asking them to leave. "Max, Ash and I are going to take off too. Going to head over to the infirmary. Check on the others. I'll Let Lily know about Alec."

"Okay, great thanks, tell the others I'll stop in later." Max nodded hugging her brothers. And whispering a thank you to Zane.

"We'll catch you guys later." And with that Max and Alec were alone for the first time since he was tortured.

After a few moments of anxious silence. Max sat next to Alec on the bed and grabbed his hand.

"You know, if you want to talk about it…" Alec shot a glare in her direction; so she decided to use a slightly different tactic. "Some of the others are having a hard time dealing with the things that happened to them. No one expects you to act like nothing happened. No one expects you to be okay. But you have to know that you're not alone in dealing with the fallout."

"Talking about it, isn't going to make what they did any less shitty Max."

"I know… but holding on to things like that, they can drive a person crazy."

"You sound like you're talking from experience here."

"Maybe, or maybe I just know a lot about people…"

"Yeah well…if you want to have this conversation now, how about you? You killed someone Max…"

"Did what I had to do. Mia was there. She was trying to help find you and Dougie." Alec's eyes widened in question, but Max just continued on. "Her and Dougie, had been captured and tortured…Dougie died during an experiment and the doctor shot Mia right in front of me before any of us could react. In order for us to find you, and get away…it had to be done. We found Brin and our other siblings all with varying amounts of torture, some barely hanging on by the time we got there. There were others, some are still in the infirmary, some decided they didn't want an '09er' telling them what to do, the rest fell in with old unit members and are becoming useful members of our society."

"Max, I'm sor…"

"No, don't…" She said putting her hand up to stop him. "I've had a couple weeks to come to terms."

"Max seriously I.." as he tried to pull her to him, Max pulled away.

"I said don't Alec. Please." Max shot back.

"I know I just…maybe, if I wouldn't have left TC like an idiot.,," he watched 'the look' cross her face. Her 'Alec you've done it this time look' and he knew was in for it.

"YOU'RE RIGHT! YOU WERE AN IDIOT! A COMPLETE AND UTTER MORON! HOW COULD YOU LEAVE; AND BY YOURSELF NO LESS AFTER EVERYTHING?!"

Max took a deep breath; this was not what she wanted to do. She almost lost him, but yelling at him now wouldn't change that. It was so easy, just to fall back into their old routine and blame Alec, but she didn't want it to do that. Not now. Looking back down at their still joined hands tears threatened to fall. She shook her head looking back up at Alec just as a tear escaped her eyes. Alec reached up with his free hand and wiped away the lone tear, letting his hand linger on her face, brushing her cheek with his thumb. Alec did the one thing he could think of in that moment. He leaned over and kissed her. It was slow and tender, but full of passion and emotion. Every feeling, every fear, every ounce of loss that they felt in one simple kiss. Just as the kiss started to gain intensity, Alec pulled back. Leaning his forehead against Max's.

"I am sorry Max for everything…" Alec took in a shaky breath. He wasn't one for sharing, of course up until now, no one had expected him to share. "I went to the space needle to clear my head…guess I needed to figure out where I stood in your world." Max blushed and went to interrupt but Alec put a finger over her lips to stop her. "we didn't have a chance to talk after everything with Zane showing up and all. I had planned on making a quick trip and it would have been but by the time I realized someone else was there they were already two steps ahead of me. I woke up in a bright room, strapped down to an iceberg of a metal table that made Manticore labs look and feel like a 5 star hotel. I remember thinking damn it Max is going to kill me for this." For that he earned a slap on the arm. "Hey now! None of that! Do you want to hear me out or no." Max nodded and Alec continued on. "The doctor and 115 went on about how I've changed since they last saw me and blah blah blah, they mentioned you and TC of course. They wanted to know about the infamous 452... Then the fun started." Alec paused. Pulling back from Max and running his hand nervously through his hair. "I can't remember all of it. I know I was being injected with different things." Max watched as a slight shiver ran through him. "Then 115 would play in my head a little, imagine the horror movie version of Mia's mind games... At first I was able to keep him as far from my memories as possible. I started locking them away. I had to make myself practically forget everything and everyone. I couldn't risk putting you in danger. But with each injection it was getting harder and harder until I must have bottomed out on them. They decided on some physical torture." It was Max's turn to shiver, and Alec grabbed her hand again. "I'll spare you the gory details. It wasn't fun or pretty. I must have been a bloody mess when you found me. I'm sure they broke every bone in my body once at least if not twice. Then others multiple times after that, just to see if I could keep healing I guess. After a couple hours I guess they got bored and switched again. They tried to use Rachel, you, my unit…anything to break me. It went on like this, switching as parts of my body gave out, and they threw me in the hole...you know the rest I guess."

Max leaned her head on his shoulder and they sat for a few minutes taking in all the crap that was their lives. Max sighed and Alec turned his head towards her. Placing a kiss on the top of her head much like the night she told him about Ben. _I could get used to this._ Was a thought that ran through both of their minds.

"Will the drama in our lives ever end?" Max pondered.

"*Humph*…that'll be the day Maxie."

"So…uh what did you come up with on your trip to the space needle?"

"Huh?"

"You said you were trying to figure out where you stood in my world, what did you come up with?"

"Honestly?" Alec thought about telling her the truth, that he was in love with the fiery, fierce woman in front of him now, but he had reached his limit for heart to heart discussions for the day, so he went for his second option. "I have no idea where I stand with you, I know where I think we could be headed, but I don't know what you want."

"Alec, I'm no good with this stuff, you saw me dance around Logan for a year, before I finally came to terms with the fact that we didn't love each other, like I thought. I'm not sure what's between us. But I know there's something. I'm willing to give it a chance if you are."

That was all the answer Alec needed. God how he had waited for this moment. For Max to see him as not just the screw up, but someone who stood a chance in her life and in her heart. He could hear her heart beat pick up as his hand reached out brushing the hair out of her face, his own heart pounding in his ears matched hers. As his lips touched hers this time, it felt like a fire inside them both had been ignited. No one else existed in the world but the two of them. His lips never leaving hers, he pulled her on his lap. It was like they couldn't get close enough. It had been so long since Max had been touched like this. Her body ached for his. Alec moved from her lips leaving a trail down her neck nipping at the flesh near her barcode, exciting the alpha feline within her. As she mimicked his motions on his neck, a chill ran through her body, his hands brushed lightly over her shoulders and down her sides. As he slid his hands under the hem of her shirt, breathless for a second Alec pulled back and whispered "Are you sure?" Max responded by removing the offending fabric between them, capturing his lips again as his hand moved to undo her bra. He vowed in that moment that he wouldn't let her regret this, he was going to take his time and show her what she'd been missing. He flipped them over with as much feline grace he could muster in his current physical state. But he had to ask one more time.

"Max, I need to hear you say you're sure. Please."

"I'm sure Alec. Are you?"

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life."

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter took on a life of its own. Sorry if it seemed rushed it wasn't my intention. I was originally going to drag out Alec's memory loss and in result of that drag out Max and Alec's eventual relationship, but Max and Alec apparently decided they would have none of that crap...and versions of that have been done a million times; In the end Max and Alec screaming their opinions in my mind won out! However, I chickened out at the end of actually writing the full scene, just nothing I wrote flowed, so this is what I came up with. Please enjoy and read and review!**


	10. The Protector

**Disclaimer: Dark Angel and it's characters are not mine...just borrowing for some fun :)**

 **Authors Note: I know, it's been a while! life totally got away from me, and things have been really up and down lately! But i think i made up for it! This is a pretty long chapter. Enjoy! :D Please Read & Review!**

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Max was already awake when Alec started to stir. If she was being completely honest she was probably the reason he was starting to stir. But she couldn't help it. She couldn't stop staring at him and touching him. _Ugh, when did I get so girly? Must be the feline in me. Is he purring? Oh my god he's purring…oh god...Do I purr?_ She kept playing the morning over in her head, smiling to herself. _So this is what it's like to be with another transgenic? Or was this just what it's like with Alec?_ Her whole body was singing; her heart was singing. For the first time in over a year, or maybe ever, she felt breathtakingly sated. Every muscle in her body had come unwound. Sex had never once felt like this for her. Never once had it been satisfying, if anything it had been a chore, or an obligation, or a heat induced mistake. She would have never guessed in a million years, Alec would be the one to convince her otherwise. This terrified her more than anything. Giving someone this type of power over her to hurt her was NOT something she was okay with.

Alec knew she was awake, before he even opened his eyes. But he was afraid to let her know he was awake, afraid he'd see fear, panic…or worse regret in her eyes. So he kept his breath even and he held on to a few more minutes of bliss. He couldn't believe it. The woman he loves, who he thought would never give him a chance, was in his bed. He wanted this moment to last a lifetime. Things had been better than he ever could have imagined. Sure, he was still aching from his ordeal but it hadn't mattered when he was with her. He had his fair share of women, it was no secret that Alec had a history of being a tom-cat. With Max though, it had been different. She had the ability to meet him with everything he gave and then some, he could only imagine what it would be like once his injuries healed completely. No other woman, transgenic or not, had ever been able to keep up with him. He always had to hold back, but not with Max. He just hoped, he wouldn't see worst case scenario in her eyes. As he felt her nuzzle his neck he knew it was time to open his eyes, and he let himself feel that hope for a moment.

"How are you awake right now?" Alec asked

Max rolled her eyes and smiled. "Just taking it all in."

"Oh yeah? And how's that going for ya?" His heart skipped a beat, there was no regret in her eyes.

"It was going great till you decided to wake up."

Alec reached over for the extra pillow and wacked Max with it playfully. Making them both laugh. Max went to take the pillow from him but as she was pulling the pillow from his hand, something on his wrist caught Max's eye.

"Alec let me see your arm"

"What? Why?" His breathing faltered and his heart raced. As he tried to turn his arm to see what she saw.

"Just let me see it!"

Alec handed her his arm, the impending pillow fight momentarily forgotten, as she turned his hand to the inner part of his wrist both transgenics took a deep breath.

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is." Alec said closing his eyes, praying to a god he wasn't sure existed that it not be what he indeed knew it was.

On the inner part of Alec's wrist, was a black rune about as big as a quarter, almost identical to the mark that had been on Max's wrist not so long ago.

"I wish I could…."Max started shaking her head, moving to get her clothes off the floor. He could see the fight or flight look in her eyes. And the guilt flash through her eyes moments before she slammed down her soldier mode wall.

"Max, no! Come on don't do that! I know that face and I saw that look…it's not your fault you didn't encode my DNA with ancient runes…"

"Yeah well, I'll bet it's no coincidence that we have sex, and then they start appearing on you too."

"Or maybe they were bound to show up on me eventually anyway…"

"Not helping Alec."

"Well, I don't know Max! It's not like I asked for this"

Sitting back on the bed, clothes in hand Max sighed.

"Get dressed Alec, we should probably get to command and show Dix, see what he can tell us."

"I don't know about you but, I'm at least going to take a shower first, I'm sure it won't be going anywhere in the next 20 minutes."

"Fine! But I'm coming with you…" Alec quirked his eyebrow at her in question, "What? I need one too…and I don't want you to use all the hot water."

"Me use all the hot water?! You're the one who takes hour long baths."

"Whatever are we showering or not?"

An hour, and 7 more runes later, Max and Alec walked through the doors of command. The room was still for just a moment; all at once the room started moving again, with "great to see ya" and "glad you're not dead" thrown in Alec's direction. After a bunch of back patting. And handshakes from people in command they finally made their way over to Dix.

"Dix man, we have a problem." At the nervous look from the monocle transhuman. Alec continued. "More runes showed up."

"Oh okay, you scared me there for a second!" looking up at Max he continued. "Just take pictures like before and Luke and I will see what we can find!"

"Uh… ya see, that's not the problem. The problem is they aren't on Max…" running his hand through his hair Alec smirked.

"OH...OH…uh...well just uh…wait...how?"

"Well, we had the working theory that maybe Max didn't hold the full message, we just never really thought another transgenic would hold the rest...let alone me of all people, we don't even know if I'm the only one."

At this point Dix caught sight of the rune on Alec's wrist and couldn't help but to get a closer look.

"What were you doing when they popped up?"

With this both Transgenics blushed, Alec smirked and Max smacked him. When there was no answer Dix looked up at the pair. One look was all he needed and he was officially uncomfortable.

"Yeah, um…okay, just have uh…someone take pictures and get them over to me asap. I have to ask…Max have any new runes popped up on you since you uh…"

"NO!" Max said a little too loud making a couple heads turn in their direction.

"Okay, okay…but I had to ask! Just get those photos over ASAP and I'll see what I can do.

Alec and Max took off to her office. They had kept the camera close by for when runes did show up. Alec had one on his wrist and 1 more on his upper arm, one over his heart and the others were in a single line along the right side of his left shoulder blade. Max took the pictures and they checked to make sure no others had shown up on Alec or herself.

"So I'm going to ask you about the elephant in the room, since you haven't said a word since we got in here…you're thinking Manticore knew about this aren't you." It wasn't a question. He knew her by now.

"How could they not?! Alec they paired us up for the breeding program, under the pretense that we were the perfect match. Is this what they meant? Is this what they were hoping for?"

"I don't know Maxie," He said leaning against the desk, grabbing her hands in his. "I really don't know. But whatever the reason, it doesn't matter now. They are done."

"Are they? Do we know that for sure? Look what just happened to you! Look at what we just rescued you from!"

Alec moved his hand to her cheek, "Max, stop! Even if there are more facilities like Manticore, like the Asylum, we will find them, and we will take them down, as we find them. But we can't risk the man power going out and searching them out. If leads come in, we will make sure we check out each and every one. But we can't worry about the maybes right now. We gotta worry about the here and now. The military outside our gates. White and his goons. Surviving…those are our priorities."

Max took a deep breath; she knew he was right. Alec lately was always right. "What do we do now?"

"Right now? We take these pictures to Dix."

"Well, you do that. I have to get my head on straight. I'm going to head down to the infirmary check in on everyone. Spend some time with my siblings. You can come down if you want, meet me there."

"You know I would, but I'm going to check in on the supply runs, chat with Talon. See how everything's been going without me."

Max beamed a little inside. "Yeah, okay. Just be careful, you aren't 100% yet. I'll see you at home later?"

Alec nodded, and they kissed goodbye as Max passed him and headed toward the infirmary, Alec walked to the front of command in search of Talon. Mole pointed him in the direction of the improvised gym they had put together, and said something about Talon needing to blow off some steam. Alec guessed in his absence Talon wasn't handling the pressure well. And he set out for the gym.

Blowing off steam is exactly what Talon was doing. The last two supply runs had been awful. No one was captured or killed thank god…but Alec's contacts were getting antsy, and hesitant in working with him. The runs weren't bringing in the amount of supplies they needed and it was aggravating. Plus, he had this BIG secret on his chest…yeah blowing off steam is the only thing he could be doing right now. He had been at it for an hour already, they had found an old punching bag during one of Alec's runs, and he was going to town on it. He didn't even notice Alec's presence. After A few minutes of watching Alec decided it was time to speak up.

"Hey Kid, if I didn't know you any better I'd say you had some anger issues." Talon jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Holy shit! Alec?! Should you even be out of bed?"

"Hey now! I'm a fast healer, besides it's been weeks. I'm tired of laying around. I need to be up and moving. Anyway, What's got your boxers in a bunch?"

"What boxers?" Talon winked, then sighed, "Man, where do I start?" Talon took a breath and grabbed his towel off the railing wiping his face. "For one, your contacts hate me and Zane, because we're not you. Two, the supply runs are coming up short, to say the least. Not nearly enough reward for the risk. We NEED you back man. In a big way." Talon ran his hands through his hair at the same exact moment Alec did the same, both transgenics staring forward.

"I can talk to my guys, get them to work with you at least until I'm pretty much back. Supply run wise, we may have to start going outside the city. It's an idea I've had for a while. We have been through most, if not all of the abandoned factories, we should still keep an eye on black market shipments, but it may be as simple as changing our search area for now. I'll get Zane to check out Fall city. See what we can find there. I mean it can't hurt."

"Yeah I guess…Look, Alec there's" Talon was going to tell him…he really was, but at that precise moment a group of X6's walked into spar. Talon sighed.

"What is it?" Alec questioned quirking his eyebrow.

"It's, uh, it's nothing…never mind. Dude, is that the time?" he said looking at his cellphone clock. "I should probably get outta here. I have to go talk to Tyler and see if we can get a run for tomorrow night. Lily needs some med supplies…and I…uh, yeah I gotta go." Talon said rushing off towards command.

"Talon, wait!" Alec called after him, but he was already gone.

He shrugged to himself. He'd corner Talon and get him to spill what his real deal was later. In the meantime, he decided to take Max up on her offer to come by the infirmary. He was pretty unsure of himself (not that he'd admit it), especially around her siblings, given he was the spitting image of their dead brother. That first meeting was always awkward, they get that spark of hope in their eyes, just to have it die out when they realized he wasn't Ben. Max had that look the first time she met him in her cell at Manticore. Zane had it that first night they found out about the Asylum. He hated it, but he figured it was now or never. Hopefully, Zane or Max had already explained who he was to them.

As he neared the infirmary his palms started to get sweaty, _since when am I this nervous? Well…I did sleep with their sister…oh god…not helping._ He shook away his thoughts and headed inside.

Max sat quietly just watching her siblings for a moment. Lily had moved all of the 09ers to a bigger room, where they could all fit, after feeling bad for the uninjured 09ers trying to split time between all their siblings. She guessed they weren't bad people, no matter what Manticore tried to teach them. For Max, it had been so long since they had all been in the same state let alone the same room. Everyone had changed in so many ways, yet the dynamics of the group had stayed exactly the same. Almost as if they had never been apart. Everyone was laughing and smiling, telling of adventures they have had, when Jondy asked if anyone had seen Ben lately. Max knew this was her opening, but Ash beat her to it, and mentioned running into Ben. The mood in the room changed dramatically.

"Yeah, I was going through Chicago at the time. When I ran into Ben. He looked good, but he seemed skittish and withdrawn. He wasn't the Ben who used to tell us stories. When I asked him what was up, he kinda just brushed me off said something about a mission and took off. I haven't seen him since."

Zane looked to Max. She had her head in her palms and as she looked up, with tears in her eyes, he knew she knew something. But he wasn't prepared for what came out of her mouth next.

"Ben had come to Seattle a few months after his stint in Chicago. He was killing people, he did so in several big cities including Chicago. Tattooing his own barcode on the back of their necks and killing them, but not only that, he was torturing them. Chasing them through wooded areas and leaving them displayed much like the man we all chased down before our escape." There was a collected gasp in the room, "He even removed all their teeth to give to the blue lady. I had found out what he was doing and tried to find him…" Zane could see the turmoil in her eyes. The pain behind her words. He sat down next to her and grabbed her hand. Max looked at him with grateful eyes and continued. "I caught up with him in a church. I waited for him. I thought I could talk him down. Convince him to get help, or help him myself. It didn't go that way. He was too far gone. But still I thought, maybe…his victim this time was a priest. I couldn't let him kill him. We fought and he was talking crazy about how we never should of left, and that everything made sense back at Manticore, he eventually took me back to his hideout. I was taken aback. He was recreating his own twisted version of the mission. Everywhere on the walls. Duty, Discipline, Mission… he tricked me and through me in a cell he had built." Tears filled her eyes. "Anyway, I got out and followed him into the woods. Just as he caught up with the father, I caught up to him. I only wanted to distract him long enough so the father could get away. But we fought again. He wouldn't let up. He wouldn't stop so I did the only thing I could think f at the time. I broke his leg. He couldn't move, so I thought I could get him to listen to reason. That's when we heard it, the helicopter. Manticore was closing in. Something finally clicked, and he was Ben again. He begged me. Kept saying he didn't want to go back. He knew he'd be put with the Nomlies, or worse…I told him there was no way I could carry us both out of there, we would have both been caught. He begged me to do it…I sat with his head on my lap, and asked him to tell me the story of the good place, like he used to when we were little." By this point Max was openly sobbing. "I had to…He begged me too…so in the middle of his story I did the only humane thing I could do. I snapped his neck and then I ran. If I had more time, if we had heard the helicopter sooner. I could have gotten us both out. If I hadn't of broken his leg…maybe…."

At this point everyone in the room had tears in their eyes. Surprising everyone, Seth was the first to speak.

"You did the right thing Maxie. Brother or not, he was too far gone. He was killing people. Manticore or anyone else for that matter, would not have been that kind. In a way you saved him. Trust me on that."

The rest of the room nodded in agreement. Max was still sobbing. Zane held her in his arms, much like he used to when she was seizing. Seth couldn't get up, but he pushed hard ass Ash towards her. All at once the siblings who could move, moved to hug her. Which only made her sob more. Here, she had this big dark secret that she thought her siblings would hate her for and they were only showing her love and support.

Alec had chosen that moment to knock on the door. He hadn't heard the topic of conversation. All heads turned and everyone, looked at Alec like they saw a ghost. _Yeah…I saw that one coming._ Max didn't let the looks linger long before she stepped in to rescue Alec.

"Everybody, this is Alec. Alec, this is everybody. His designation is 494." She said wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Hey Handsome! Names Jondy, but you can call me Dee, everyone else does." Jondy started, putting her hand on Alec's bicep. And Alec quirked his eye brow at her and then looked to Max, and back at Jondy.

Zane felt Max vibrate next to him. He had to stifle a laugh.

"Dee…Don't go there…" He warned. Jondy wasn't too quick to catch on.

"Zane STOP TELLING ME WHAT…."as she looked over at Zane, she caught site of Max who at this point was openly growling since Jondy's hand had still been touching Alec… "Oh…oops! I didn't…I'm just….I'm gonna go sit over there…."

As Jondy sat next to Krit with head in her hands. The whole room laughed and the tension that had been there moments before was gone.

The group laughed and reminisced for hours. Zack's name was brought up a couple times, but Max wasn't ready to have that conversation yet. One emotionally raw conversation was enough for one day. They were all getting ready to leave and Alec pulled Zane aside briefly to talk about Fall City. Zane agreed to look into it, and Max and Alec took off in the direction of command.

"So I'm guessing your chat with Talon went well?" Max had been waiting to ask all afternoon

"Yeah, I mean I guess. He was acting a little off even for Talon." He said Running his one hand through his hair, and using the other to wrap around Max.

To the naked eye, they looked like a couple just holding each other close. But Max could feel the fatigue coming from Alec. _Maybe command wasn't such a great idea_ … Max thought to herself

"Oh really? Huh…I knew he said something about having something important to tell you"

"Yeah well he told me things with the runs aren't going all that great without me. Also started to say something else, but got all twitchy on me and took off."

Max's heart sunk a little. Talon had chickened out. She wanted so bad to tell Alec. But with it not being her news to share it felt wrong. So she bit back the urge as they continued their walk. They neared command and Max turned to Alec silently asking if he was up for another command visit. He seemed to sense her question and nodded towards the door.

It was nearing 11pm so most of the normal transgenic crew had already left for the day, and the night shift had taken over.

Max did her last check in with Mole, Dix and Luke for the night. As she did her typical sweep of the room and noticed Talon sitting in the corner. Leaving Alec to his uninteresting shop talk with Mole. Max wondered over to Talon.

"Max don't start…I'm going to tell him I swear! It just wasn't the right time."

"Trust me on this one kid, 'right times' never come. Ya gotta take advantage of the time you have, right or not."

"Ya know, you're not as bitchy as everyone says ya are."

"SHHHH…don't tell them that!" Max said nodding towards Alec and the others. "I just have a soft spot for family is all." She said putting her arm around him.

"Yeah well… I just…"

"Gotta tell him." Max winked at him and left Talon with a ruffle of his hair.

Talon sat for a moment in his own silence. He had 2 hours before he had to get ready to leave for the next run. He took a deep breath in as his heart started racing he called out to Alec.

"Alec! I…we gotta talk…"

Alec looked to Max and then Talon again. He had seen her over there talking to him, if he thought about it Talon and Max had been spending a lot of time together since he got hurt. But of course there was nothing going on there. Max was his…of course unofficially. They hadn't mated or anything….at least not yet. But still the territorial pull was there. The urge to rip Talon a new one was strong…even if he knew there was nothing going on between the pair. He shook off his animal instincts for the moment and walked over towards Talon, taking the place Max had occupied moments ago.

"So you gonna stop being all weird and tell me what's up?"

"Yeah…so I'm just gonna come out with it." Talon took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. "Alec, I'm your…I mean…We're brothers." With the shocked look on Alec's face. Talon felt he should continue. "Like real, honest to God same genetic material brothers. Our parents are the same. Our Animal DNA is slightly different. I have Shark DNA with my feline. I've known since Manticore. Psy-Ops trip in '09 after the escape. I was 7…I just…"

"You've known…you've known this whole time? Why, why haven't you said anything?"

"It was never the right time. Dude I've tried. Really I have. But in Manticore it wouldn't have mattered. And out here…I just…I dunno figured we could discuss it over a beer or two…and it never happened."

"I have a brother…a little brother…"

"Hey now! I'm not that little!"

"Did Max know about this? Is that what you were talking about?" with the accusation in Alec's voice Talon flinched.

"Yeah…but she…"

"How could she not tell me? How long has she known?" The hurt evident in his eyes.

"Wasn't her news to tell. It was mine. She was giving me a chance to tell you myself. Which is what we were just talking about. You know she's not that bad, once you get pass the bitch."

Alec had to laugh. "Yeah I know….so…brothers?"

"Yep."

"Huh...I've always wanted someone I could boss around" Alec laughed and ruffled Talons hair.

"Okay, you two really need to stop doing that! My hair is not for ruffling!"

Alec just laughed and started to walk away.

"So we're good, right Alec?"

"Yeah kid, we're good. Check in with me once you get back from your run."

As Alec was walking over to Max, he couldn't help but think. _I have a brother. An honest to God, same DNA, (not a twin or a clone) brother. I've always wanted a family. Now I've got it._ He couldn't help but wonder, about Ben. The brother he never actually met. As he got to Max, he felt his legs wanting to give out. Max caught the pained look on his face and got there a moment before he lost his balance. Alec was still not 100% no matter how bad he wanted to be. Max made an executive decision. Instead of heading back out of command towards their apartment. She helped him towards her office. As she got there she laid him on the couch, it was only then, she noticed the tiny tremors making their way through Alec's clammy sweat filled body.

"Alec why didn't you say something?"

"They didn't start till I sat down to talk to Talon."

"Alec, you should've said something. I could've got you home"

"Kinda like you could've told me I had a brother?"

"Alec I…it wasn't my news to tell."

"I know, I know…s…o…rrrry" a tremor racked it's way through his body. Alec hadn't had seizures since he was a kid. So he had to think whatever 115 did to him, most likely left permanent damage.

Max held him close as the tremors racked his body. Pulling Tryptophan from her jacket pocket she gave him a few to take.

"They should kick in soon." But she was talking to herself. Alec had lost his fight with exhaustion in her arms as light tremors went through his body.

They spent the night on the couch in her office. Max watched as little flickers of sunlight started to fight their way through the broken and dirty blinds in her office. She hadn't gotten a wink of sleep, Alec had a couple bad episodes throughout the night. The tremors had finally stopped about 3:00am. But the ever vigilant Max refused to relax, just in case. Thank the Manticore jerks for Shark DNA.

The first thing he noticed, his head was pounding and every nerve ending was on fire. Typical morning after a night of seizures. The second thing he noticed was her warmth. He could feel her running her fingers through his hair in a soothing motion. _A guy could get used to this…_ The third thing he noticed was how amazing Max smelled. _Yep, a guy could definitely get used to this._

A nervous Dix stood on the other side of her door. He knew he had to knock. But disturbing Max was not a favorite past time of his. As he started to get the nerve to knock, Talon came up behind him.

"Hey man! Looking for Max?"

"Yeah, actually…"

"Well you aren't going to get an answer if you just stand there staring all day!" Talon took the opportunity to knock. Dix looked even more nervous for a moment and Talon shrugged "I gotta talk to Alec."

Max heard the knock and groaned inward. Alec wasn't ready for all of the hustle and bustle of command. That had shown yesterday. Maybe they could just handle whatever was at the door and she could convince him to go home and rest…she looked over at a now wide awake Alec… _yeah, like that would happen…_

"Come in!"

Dix hesitated but Talon walked right in.

"What's up Talon?"

"I wanted to let you both know. Zane looked into Fall city last night. Sending out some recon tonight to get guard rotations. But it seems to be a go. We just gotta work out the kinks. I need approval to get a couple of the older X6's on my team. Fall city has some bigger warehouses. May need a bigger team. Unless you're coming back Alec?"

"Not yet kid. Maybe in a couple days. But you're approved to get some X6's. See if any of Max's siblings want to go too. We gotta start getting them into the rotations, earn them some trust among the ranks."

"Got it. I'll see what I can do. Catch ya later!" with that Talon was out the door. Headed to the infirmary to recruit some of Max's siblings.

"So what's the news Dix?" Mas asked.

"Well I worked on the translations all day and most of the night. What I got is this 'The dormant powers of The Protector, will emerge when The One needs him the most. His powers will ignite hers. The mark will bind them for life."

"So Alec has dormant powers?"

"of course that's all she heard…." Alec snickered

"Hey I only translate the messages…what they actually mean is lost on me. We won't know what's supposed to happen for sure, until it happens. But Alec may have been a back-up plan. The single symbol on his wrist has two completely separate meanings. The Twin and The Protector."Dix put his hands up in defense.

"Great...just freaking great." Alec said rolling his eyes.


	11. Damn Seizures

Disclaimer: Again...I own nothing, just borrowing... for a little.

A/N: So I added some lines to this chapter and fixed some spelling mistakes. It's pretty much the same just a little more well rounded.

A/N: What they knew so far:

1\. Max has something to do with the big bad apocalypse or "Coming" with the breeding cult.

2\. (If the translations are correct) Max is supposed to be the "Savior" of the meek during said "coming"

3\. Max has dormant powers and so does the "Protector"

4\. Alec may or may not be Max's "Protector", destined to be the lover or "The Twin" per these damn runes. Go figure.

Max's head was spinning, Alec was sitting back down on the ratty old couch, head in his hands. Dix had left over 20 minutes ago, and not a word was said between the two transgenics. As she processed what Dix had told them, she couldn't help but think; For every answer, they get there are a thousand more questions. She glanced at the rune on the inside of Alec's wrist and shook her head. Manticore never failed, in screwing up her life. Ben, Logan, Zack, Tinga, Jack, Eva...and now Alec. She was so over their control of her life. Max observed Alec, taking in his defeated posture; She could see the wheels turning in his head. They both had a very similar fight or flight response and she could tell he was going to run. However, she could also see how yesterday had taken its toll on him. As she studied him she could still see small tells of the horror he'd been through just a few weeks ago, Alec was the master at pretending he was "always alright", but she was learning lately, how to see through his walls.

Alec was having a hard time processing. _What the hell did any of this mean? Was he just a backup plan or was he always the one meant to stand with Max. If they were meant to be put together why were they put in different units? Not that it matters…but when she came back, Manticore made them breeding partners for a reason…right? Was this it? Was it not fate, but science that drew them together? Not to mention the whole "Mark will bind them for life" thing. Sure he has known for a while he loves Max, but they had barely begun and now these runes are talking about mating. Okay, maybe someday, but on their own terms. This kind of pressure? It was all too much, too fast._ _If they were going to be more than just, whatever THIS was, it's going to be on their own terms. Not because they were some asshats damn science project!_ His mind couldn't take all this in right now. He was still not 100% from seizing all night or his ordeal with 115. He needed a moment to breathe, but his body had other plans.

He could feel his heart rate increasing, felt the clamminess before the first tremor started. One thing Alec hated more than anything else was not being in control of his own body. In his life, he hadn't been able to control much, but aside from a few seizures early on, his body was typically one thing that never failed him. He hated feeling weak, but it was more than that. He hated feeling weak around anyone else but especially Max, the person who (per the runes) he was supposed to be protecting, not the other way around. Alec stood and kicked the small table over in front of them out of frustration catching Max almost completely off guard as it shattered against the opposite wall.

"Whoa, Alec! What the hell?! Calm…" as she started to place a hand on his shoulder, he shrugged her off.

"Max…so help you god, don't finish that sentence."

"Well then, you want to talk about it?"

"No Max, I really don't. I'm going to go stop in and see Lily and Doc…let them know about the seizures, I'll meet you at home, later."

"Well, let me grab my jacket and I'll…"

"No!" he said a little too harshly, "I can do it myself. I need…I need to do this myself…I'm sorry. I'll see you at home, later okay?"

She raised a brow but nodded and with that, he kissed her on the forehead and walked out of the office. Praying that she wouldn't notice the sweat on his forehead, the tremors going through his body or the lack of feline grace in his walk.

Meanwhile, in the Med-bay, Ash and Zane were sitting in the makeshift waiting room away from the others. Speaking barely above a whisper.

"Zae, man I've never seen Vada like this. Have you noticed how she flinches every-time anyone even looks at her?"

"Yeah…I just wish I knew what to do to fix it. Kavi isn't much better. And Seth, still isn't saying much, not that he was ever the talkative type, to begin with, but hey…his silence is deafening lately."

"I wish Tinga or Zack were here, they'd know what to do."

"Nah man, that department was always Maxie and Ben. They are…well, Ben was, the best at handling the emotional situations. I'll get Maxie down here to at least try and talk to Vada. I was going to head towards command anyway. Wanted to check in with our baby sis especially after what she's been through…"

"Yeah, I can't stop thinking about it. Little Maxie, killing Ben? Just doesn't seem right. They were closer than her and Krit, who actually shares her DNA…"

"Maxie wouldn't have done it if she thought there was any other way. Ben loved her more than he ever loved any one of us. And I'm sure, had we stayed…"

"Yeah...I know, which is why I'm not sure how I feel about her dating his clone. It's a little strange isn't it?"

"Not clone dude, twin. But, I don't know either. They seem pretty different personality wise as far as I've seen. This whole thing is…I mean we grew up with Ben and Alec is just a stranger to us with our brothers face. I haven't spent much time with him one on one, but what I do know is that whatever it is they are doing it's fairly new. Per some of the others, up until recently, their relationship was rocky at best. They are still figuring things out at this point I guess. He seems like a decent guy though, a little reckless, but decent. He accepted us right off the bat, which is more than I can say for most of the others around here…"

"Still, I don't know. I guess I'll try and reserve my judgment till I get one on one time with him. Just something about him…"

"The fact that he's most likely banging our lil sis doesn't help…"

"Yeah, that's probably it" Ash laughed.

The tremors were getting worse. He knew he wasn't going to make it to Doc or Lily. He concentrated on making it into the building, collapsing on the street would not be good for morale. As he approached the building, he almost dropped to his knees _Not yet._ He willed his body up. _Just a few more steps._ He got to the door to the Med-bay, and no sooner had he stepped inside he let his body give in to the tremors.

Zane and Ash looked to see the door open.

"Hey, Alec we were just…" Zane started but instantly realized something was wrong. As Alec was about to hit the floor Zane got to him to brace his head. Ash ran to go get help.

"Hang in there, bro," Zane whispered to Alec.


End file.
